VacationSelector
Sugarloaf Mountain above the boats in Botafogo Bay, Rio de Janeiro
Rio de JaneiroSugarloaf Mountain above the boats in Botafogo Bay
Minato Mirai and the Cosmo Clock, Yokohama
YokohamaMinato Mirai and the Cosmo Clock

Photos: Rio de Janeiro by Arne Müseler, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE, cropped; Yokohama by Yoshio Kohara, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Rio de Janeiro or Yokohama?

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

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Yokohama for

  • getting around
  • day trips
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Yokohama’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, Yokohama 46: Rio de Janeiro leads by 46 points.
Food & drink. Rio de Janeiro 62, Yokohama 72: Yokohama leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. Rio de Janeiro 68, Yokohama 55: Rio de Janeiro leads by 13 points.
Nightlife. Rio de Janeiro 80, Yokohama 44: Rio de Janeiro leads by 36 points.
Nature & outdoors. Rio de Janeiro 90, Yokohama 66: Rio de Janeiro leads by 24 points.
Day trips. Rio de Janeiro 50, Yokohama 86: Yokohama leads by 36 points.
Good for families. Rio de Janeiro 50, Yokohama 86: Yokohama leads by 36 points.
Getting around. Rio de Janeiro 44, Yokohama 87: Yokohama leads by 43 points.
Shopping & style. Rio de Janeiro 50, Yokohama 60: Yokohama leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Rio de Janeiro 60, Yokohama 55: Rio de Janeiro leads by 5 points.
Live music & performing arts. Rio de Janeiro 66, Yokohama 56: Rio de Janeiro leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Rio de Janeiro 30, Yokohama 60: Yokohama leads by 30 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Rio de Janeiro and Yokohama.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Rio de Janeiro
62match

Wins on beaches and nightlife with your weighting.

Yokohama
64match

Wins on getting around 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
No recordsunshine a day
22 °Csea
11 hdaylight a day

Yokohama in July

28 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
145 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
24 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Rio de JaneiroYokohama

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.

Yokohama's sunshine is measured 29 km from the centre, at Tokyo.

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. Yokohama: 1971-2000 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Yokohama (1.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureRio de JaneiroYokohama
Official languagePortugueseJapanese
CurrencyBrazilian Real (BRL)Yen (JPY)
SocketsCN60 HzAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the region
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-3UTC+9
Emergency numberPolice 190, ambulance 192, fire 193Police 110, fire 119
Elevation31 m24 m
Main airportRio de Janeiro Galeão – Tom Jobim International Airport (GIG)12 km from centre54 non-stop destinationsTokyo Haneda International Airport (HND)18 km from centre98 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureRio de JaneiroYokohama
City population6,211,2233,757,630
People per km²4,9308,585
Museums within 10 km6938
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km31
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months5 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Rio de Janeiro or Yokohama 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.