VacationSelector
The church of La Compania under a blue sky, Arequipa
ArequipaThe church of La Compania under a blue sky
The City of Arts and Sciences, Valencia
ValenciaThe City of Arts and Sciences

Photos: Arequipa by DocSlyper, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Valencia by Francesco Ungaro, Pexels License.

Arequipa or Valencia?

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 Arequipa for

  • prices
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Valencia for

  • beaches
  • day trips
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Valencia’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. Arequipa 8, Valencia 78: Valencia leads by 70 points.
Food & drink. Arequipa 66, Valencia 74: Valencia leads by 8 points.
Culture & sights. Arequipa 64, Valencia 68: Valencia leads by 4 points.
Nightlife. Arequipa 36, Valencia 66: Valencia leads by 30 points.
Nature & outdoors. Arequipa 74, Valencia 60: Arequipa leads by 14 points.
Day trips. Arequipa 30, Valencia 70: Valencia leads by 40 points.
Good for families. Arequipa 35, Valencia 75: Valencia leads by 40 points.
Getting around. Arequipa 54, Valencia 76: Valencia leads by 22 points.
Shopping & style. Arequipa 44, Valencia 57: Valencia leads by 13 points.
Affordability. Arequipa 82, Valencia 57: Arequipa leads by 25 points.
Live music & performing arts. Arequipa 27, Valencia 55: Valencia leads by 28 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Arequipa 34, Valencia 42: Valencia leads by 8 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Arequipa and Valencia.

Your match

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

Arequipa
46match

Wins on prices and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Valencia
Best match
65match

Wins on beaches 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.

Arequipa in July

21 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
11 hdaylight a day

Valencia in July

30 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
7 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080JFMAMJJASOND
ArequipaValencia

Where the figures come from

Arequipa's station stands 203 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer than the figures say.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Arequipa: 1991-2020 normals, Arequipa (9.2 km from centre). Valencia: 1991-2020 normals, Valencia (1.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureArequipaValencia
Official languageSpanish, Aymara, QuechuaSpanish
CurrencySol (PEN)Euro (EUR)
SocketsABC220 V, 60 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number111 or 911112
Elevation2,335 m15 m
Main airportRodríguez Ballón International Airport (AQP)7 km from centre2 non-stop destinationsValencia Airport (VLC)9 km from centre109 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year17 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureArequipaValencia
City population1,008,290840,792
People per km²1,5516,242
Museums within 10 km345
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km12
Swim season, months above 21 °C-5 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Arequipa or Valencia 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. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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.