VacationSelector
The Explanada de España, Alicante
AlicanteThe Explanada de España
A painted funicular on the hillside, Valparaiso
ValparaisoA painted funicular on the hillside

Photos: Alicante by Emilio Sánchez Hernández, Pexels License; Valparaiso by Maclemo, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Alicante or Valparaiso?

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 Alicante for

  • beaches
  • families
  • getting around

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

Choose Valparaiso for

  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Valparaiso’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. Alicante 82, Valparaiso 36: Alicante leads by 46 points.
Food & drink. Alicante 67, Valparaiso 50: Alicante leads by 17 points.
Culture & sights. Alicante 46, Valparaiso 62: Valparaiso leads by 16 points.
Nightlife. Alicante 60, Valparaiso 56: Alicante leads by 4 points.
Nature & outdoors. Alicante 63, Valparaiso 60: Alicante leads by 3 points.
Day trips. Alicante 72, Valparaiso 63: Alicante leads by 9 points.
Good for families. Alicante 68, Valparaiso 33: Alicante leads by 35 points.
Getting around. Alicante 66, Valparaiso 44: Alicante leads by 22 points.
Shopping & style. Alicante 44, Valparaiso 30: Alicante leads by 14 points.
Affordability. Alicante and Valparaiso are level on 60.
Live music & performing arts. Alicante 37, Valparaiso 38: Valparaiso leads by 1 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Alicante 40, Valparaiso 18: Alicante leads by 22 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Alicante and Valparaiso.

Your match

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

Alicante
Best match
59match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

Valparaiso
46match

Wins on culture and sights and live music and the arts with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Alicante in July

30 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
3 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Valparaiso in July

15 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
71 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
13 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
AlicanteValparaiso

Where the figures come from

Valparaiso has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Alicante: 1991-2020 normals, Alicante (2.8 km from centre). Valparaiso: 2010-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Viña Del Mar / Montemar (17 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAlicanteValparaiso
Official languageSpanishSpanish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Chilean Peso (CLP)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzCL220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-4, UTC-3 in summer
Emergency number112Police 133/134, ambulance 131, fire 132
Elevation3 m21 m
Main airportAlicante-Elche Miguel Hernández Airport (ALC)10 km from centre126 non-stop destinationsComodoro Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport (SCL)87 km from centre67 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureAlicanteValparaiso
City population366,221296,655
People per km²1,8196,180
Museums within 10 km817
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
Swim season, months above 21 °C5 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Alicante or Valparaiso somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). 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). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates.

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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.