VacationSelector
The church of La Compania under a blue sky, Arequipa
ArequipaThe church of La Compania under a blue sky
A painted funicular on the hillside, Valparaiso
ValparaisoA painted funicular on the hillside

Photos: Arequipa by DocSlyper, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Valparaiso by Maclemo, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Arequipa 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 Arequipa for

  • prices
  • food and drink
  • wellness

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

Choose Valparaiso for

  • day trips
  • beaches
  • nightlife

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. Arequipa 8, Valparaiso 36: Valparaiso leads by 28 points.
Food & drink. Arequipa 66, Valparaiso 50: Arequipa leads by 16 points.
Culture & sights. Arequipa 64, Valparaiso 62: Arequipa leads by 2 points.
Nightlife. Arequipa 36, Valparaiso 56: Valparaiso leads by 20 points.
Nature & outdoors. Arequipa 74, Valparaiso 60: Arequipa leads by 14 points.
Day trips. Arequipa 30, Valparaiso 63: Valparaiso leads by 33 points.
Good for families. Arequipa 35, Valparaiso 33: Arequipa leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Arequipa 54, Valparaiso 44: Arequipa leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Arequipa 44, Valparaiso 30: Arequipa leads by 14 points.
Affordability. Arequipa 82, Valparaiso 60: Arequipa leads by 22 points.
Live music & performing arts. Arequipa 27, Valparaiso 38: Valparaiso leads by 11 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Arequipa 34, Valparaiso 18: Arequipa leads by 16 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Too close to call, level with your weighting

Arequipa
46match

Wins on prices and food and drink with your weighting.

Valparaiso
46match

Wins on day trips and beaches 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 seasea
11 hdaylight a day

Valparaiso in July

15 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
71 mmrain in the month
13 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°5°10°15°20°25°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
ArequipaValparaiso

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.

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. Arequipa: 1991-2020 normals, Arequipa (9.2 km from centre). Valparaiso: 2010-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Viña Del Mar / Montemar (17 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureArequipaValparaiso
Official languageSpanish, Aymara, QuechuaSpanish
CurrencySol (PEN)Chilean Peso (CLP)
SocketsABC220 V, 60 HzCL220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-4, UTC-3 in summer
Emergency number111 or 911Police 133/134, ambulance 131, fire 132
Elevation2,335 m21 m
Main airportRodríguez Ballón International Airport (AQP)7 km from centre2 non-stop destinationsComodoro Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport (SCL)87 km from centre67 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year17 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureArequipaValparaiso
City population1,008,290296,655
People per km²1,5516,180
Museums within 10 km317
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
Swim season, months above 21 °C-None

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Arequipa 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. 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. 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.