VacationSelector
The Sagrada Família, Barcelona
BarcelonaThe Sagrada Família
A painted funicular on the hillside, Valparaiso
ValparaisoA painted funicular on the hillside

Photos: Barcelona by Canaan, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Valparaiso by Maclemo, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Barcelona 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 Barcelona for

  • shopping
  • families
  • beaches

What lies behind each score is written up on Barcelona’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. Barcelona 75, Valparaiso 36: Barcelona leads by 39 points.
Food & drink. Barcelona 82, Valparaiso 50: Barcelona leads by 32 points.
Culture & sights. Barcelona 86, Valparaiso 62: Barcelona leads by 24 points.
Nightlife. Barcelona 82, Valparaiso 56: Barcelona leads by 26 points.
Nature & outdoors. Barcelona 72, Valparaiso 60: Barcelona leads by 12 points.
Day trips. Barcelona 80, Valparaiso 63: Barcelona leads by 17 points.
Good for families. Barcelona 76, Valparaiso 33: Barcelona leads by 43 points.
Getting around. Barcelona 80, Valparaiso 44: Barcelona leads by 36 points.
Shopping & style. Barcelona 75, Valparaiso 30: Barcelona leads by 45 points.
Affordability. Barcelona 44, Valparaiso 60: Valparaiso leads by 16 points.
Live music & performing arts. Barcelona 70, Valparaiso 38: Barcelona leads by 32 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Barcelona 38, Valparaiso 18: Barcelona leads by 20 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Barcelona
Best match
72match

Wins on shopping and families 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.

Barcelona in July

28 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
27 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
24 °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°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
BarcelonaValparaiso

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. Barcelona: 1991-2020 normals, Barcelona / Aeropuerto (14.4 km from centre). Valparaiso: 2010-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Viña Del Mar / Montemar (17 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBarcelonaValparaiso
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
Elevation9 m21 m
Main airportJosep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat Airport (BCN)13 km from centre235 non-stop destinationsComodoro Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport (SCL)87 km from centre67 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureBarcelonaValparaiso
City population1,731,649296,655
People per km²17,0946,180
Museums within 10 km9517
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km31
Swim season, months above 21 °C3 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

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