VacationSelector
Sugarloaf Mountain above the boats in Botafogo Bay, Rio de Janeiro
Rio de JaneiroSugarloaf Mountain above the boats in Botafogo Bay
The Riverwalk and the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge, Wilmington
WilmingtonThe Riverwalk and the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge

Photos: Rio de Janeiro by Arne Müseler, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE, cropped; Wilmington by Unexpected Snacks, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Rio de Janeiro or Wilmington?

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
  • nature and the outdoors
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Wilmington for

  • families
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Wilmington’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, Wilmington 73: Rio de Janeiro leads by 19 points.
Food & drink. Rio de Janeiro 62, Wilmington 48: Rio de Janeiro leads by 14 points.
Culture & sights. Rio de Janeiro 68, Wilmington 40: Rio de Janeiro leads by 28 points.
Nightlife. Rio de Janeiro 80, Wilmington 40: Rio de Janeiro leads by 40 points.
Nature & outdoors. Rio de Janeiro 90, Wilmington 58: Rio de Janeiro leads by 32 points.
Day trips. Rio de Janeiro 50, Wilmington 45: Rio de Janeiro leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Rio de Janeiro 50, Wilmington 62: Wilmington leads by 12 points.
Getting around. Rio de Janeiro 44, Wilmington 28: Rio de Janeiro leads by 16 points.
Shopping & style. Rio de Janeiro 50, Wilmington 33: Rio de Janeiro leads by 17 points.
Affordability. Rio de Janeiro 60, Wilmington 42: Rio de Janeiro leads by 18 points.
Live music & performing arts. Rio de Janeiro 66, Wilmington 40: Rio de Janeiro leads by 26 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Rio de Janeiro 30, Wilmington 33: Wilmington leads by 3 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Rio de Janeiro and Wilmington.

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 nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Wilmington
45match

Wins on families and wellness 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
No recordsunshine a day
22 °Csea
11 hdaylight a day

Wilmington in July

32 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
174 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
27 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Rio de JaneiroWilmington

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. Wilmington: 1991-2020 normals, Wilmington / The Palms Mobile Home Park (5.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureRio de JaneiroWilmington
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 m9 m
Main airportRio de Janeiro Galeão – Tom Jobim International Airport (GIG)12 km from centre54 non-stop destinationsWilmington International Airport (ILM)5 km from centre25 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureRio de JaneiroWilmington
City population6,211,223115,451
People per km²4,930839
Museums within 10 km692
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km30
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months6 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Rio de Janeiro or Wilmington 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.