VacationSelector
Sugarloaf Mountain above the boats in Botafogo Bay, Rio de Janeiro
Rio de JaneiroSugarloaf Mountain above the boats in Botafogo Bay
The beach and the oceanfront hotels from the fishing pier, Virginia Beach
Virginia BeachThe beach and the oceanfront hotels from the fishing pier

Photos: Rio de Janeiro by Arne Müseler, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE, cropped; Virginia Beach by SchuminWeb, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Rio de Janeiro or Virginia Beach?

Our verdict in twelve categories, each scored against the same fixed benchmark cities, and the climate month by month, so you can choose for your trip.

Choose Rio de Janeiro for

  • nightlife
  • culture and sights
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Rio de Janeiro’s own page.

Choose Virginia Beach for

  • families
  • day trips
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Virginia Beach’s own page.

Scoreboard

Twelve categories on one fixed scale from 0 to 100. The shaded stretch is the gap between the two.

Beaches & swimming. Rio de Janeiro 92, Virginia Beach 77: Rio de Janeiro leads by 15 points.
Food & drink. Rio de Janeiro 62, Virginia Beach 42: Rio de Janeiro leads by 20 points.
Culture & sights. Rio de Janeiro 68, Virginia Beach 30: Rio de Janeiro leads by 38 points.
Nightlife. Rio de Janeiro 80, Virginia Beach 37: Rio de Janeiro leads by 43 points.
Nature & outdoors. Rio de Janeiro 90, Virginia Beach 56: Rio de Janeiro leads by 34 points.
Day trips. Rio de Janeiro 50, Virginia Beach 64: Virginia Beach leads by 14 points.
Good for families. Rio de Janeiro 50, Virginia Beach 75: Virginia Beach leads by 25 points.
Getting around. Rio de Janeiro 44, Virginia Beach 27: Rio de Janeiro leads by 17 points.
Shopping & style. Rio de Janeiro 50, Virginia Beach 32: Rio de Janeiro leads by 18 points.
Affordability. Rio de Janeiro 60, Virginia Beach 40: Rio de Janeiro leads by 20 points.
Live music & performing arts. Rio de Janeiro 66, Virginia Beach 38: Rio de Janeiro leads by 28 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Rio de Janeiro 30, Virginia Beach 32: Virginia Beach leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Rio de Janeiro and Virginia Beach.

Your match

Pick a travel style or drag the sliders, and both match scores follow your weighting.

Rio de Janeiro
Best match
62match

Wins on nightlife and culture and sights with your weighting.

Virginia Beach
46match

Wins on families and day trips with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Rio de Janeiro in July

24 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
45 mmrain in the month
22 °Csea
11 hdaylight a day

Virginia Beach in July

31 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
152 mmrain in the month
25 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Rio de JaneiroVirginia Beach

Where the figures come from

Rio de Janeiro has no weather station within reach, so its figures come from a gridded climate model rather than a measured record, and read a broad area rather than the city itself.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Rio de Janeiro: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km. Virginia Beach: 1991-2020 normals, Virginia Beach / Gatewood Park (5.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureRio de JaneiroVirginia Beach
Official languagePortuguese-
CurrencyBrazilian Real (BRL)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCN60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-3UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 190, ambulance 192, fire 193911
Elevation31 m7 m
Main airportRio de Janeiro Galeão – Tom Jobim International Airport (GIG)12 km from centre54 non-stop destinationsNorfolk International Airport (ORF)20 km from centre42 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureRio de JaneiroVirginia Beach
City population6,211,223459,470
People per km²4,930-
Museums within 10 km692
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km30
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months4 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Rio de Janeiro or Virginia Beach somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. Rainfall where no rain gauge is within 25 km is from the TerraClimate 1991-2020 climatology (Abatzoglou et al. 2018, Scientific Data), read at the city. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. Non-stop route lists from the "Airlines and destinations" tables on English Wikipedia airport articles, by Wikipedia contributors, reused under CC BY-SA 4.0. Currency from the ISO 4217 register maintained by SIX, cross-checked against country data from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0). Price level from World Bank open data (PPP conversion factor for private consumption and official exchange rate), CC BY 4.0. Time zones from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0); clock offsets computed from the IANA time zone database. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm.

Category scores are our editorial verdict under rubric v3, each placed against the same fixed benchmark cities; the climate figures are measured. How the scores are set. Snapshot generated 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.