VacationSelector
The Parthenon on the Acropolis, Athens
AthensThe Parthenon on the Acropolis
A painted funicular on the hillside, Valparaiso
ValparaisoA painted funicular on the hillside

Photos: Athens by Ranjeet Kumar Singh, Pexels License; Valparaiso by Maclemo, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Athens 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 Athens for

  • beaches
  • food and drink
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Valparaiso for

  • prices

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. Athens 70, Valparaiso 36: Athens leads by 34 points.
Food & drink. Athens 78, Valparaiso 50: Athens leads by 28 points.
Culture & sights. Athens 88, Valparaiso 62: Athens leads by 26 points.
Nightlife. Athens 80, Valparaiso 56: Athens leads by 24 points.
Nature & outdoors. Athens 64, Valparaiso 60: Athens leads by 4 points.
Day trips. Athens 85, Valparaiso 63: Athens leads by 22 points.
Good for families. Athens 58, Valparaiso 33: Athens leads by 25 points.
Getting around. Athens 66, Valparaiso 44: Athens leads by 22 points.
Shopping & style. Athens 55, Valparaiso 30: Athens leads by 25 points.
Affordability. Athens 56, Valparaiso 60: Valparaiso leads by 4 points.
Live music & performing arts. Athens 64, Valparaiso 38: Athens leads by 26 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Athens 42, Valparaiso 18: Athens leads by 24 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Athens
Best match
67match

Wins on beaches and food and drink with your weighting.

Valparaiso
46match

Wins on prices with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Athens in July

34 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
7 mmrain in the month
13 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
AthensValparaiso

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. Athens: 1991-2020 normals, Athens / Athenai / Pláka (2.2 km from centre). Valparaiso: 2010-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Viña Del Mar / Montemar (17 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAthensValparaiso
Official languageGreekSpanish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Chilean Peso (CLP)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzCL220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+2, UTC+3 in summerUTC-4, UTC-3 in summer
Emergency number112Police 133/134, ambulance 131, fire 132
Elevation74 m21 m
Main airportAthens Eleftherios Venizelos International Airport (ATH)20 km from centre173 non-stop destinationsComodoro Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport (SCL)87 km from centre67 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year15 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureAthensValparaiso
City population643,452296,655
People per km²16,4996,180
Museums within 10 km8817
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 Athens 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.