VacationSelector
The Massachusetts State House, Boston
BostonThe Massachusetts State House
A painted funicular on the hillside, Valparaiso
ValparaisoA painted funicular on the hillside

Photos: Boston by Ajay Suresh, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Valparaiso by Maclemo, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Boston 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 Boston for

  • families
  • live music and the arts
  • getting around

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

Choose Valparaiso for

  • prices
  • nightlife
  • beaches

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. Boston 35, Valparaiso 36: Valparaiso leads by 1 points.
Food & drink. Boston 64, Valparaiso 50: Boston leads by 14 points.
Culture & sights. Boston 72, Valparaiso 62: Boston leads by 10 points.
Nightlife. Boston 47, Valparaiso 56: Valparaiso leads by 9 points.
Nature & outdoors. Boston and Valparaiso are level on 60.
Day trips. Boston 72, Valparaiso 63: Boston leads by 9 points.
Good for families. Boston 72, Valparaiso 33: Boston leads by 39 points.
Getting around. Boston 70, Valparaiso 44: Boston leads by 26 points.
Shopping & style. Boston 55, Valparaiso 30: Boston leads by 25 points.
Affordability. Boston 18, Valparaiso 60: Valparaiso leads by 42 points.
Live music & performing arts. Boston 72, Valparaiso 38: Boston leads by 34 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Boston 30, Valparaiso 18: Boston leads by 12 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Boston
Best match
56match

Wins on families and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Valparaiso
46match

Wins on prices and nightlife with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Boston in July

28 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
82 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
18 °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
BostonValparaiso

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. Boston: 1991-2020 normals, Boston Logan International (3.5 km from centre). Valparaiso: 2010-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Viña Del Mar / Montemar (17 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBostonValparaiso
Official language-Spanish
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Chilean Peso (CLP)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCL220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC-4, UTC-3 in summer
Emergency number911Police 133/134, ambulance 131, fire 132
Elevation43 m21 m
Main airportBoston Logan International Airport (BOS)4 km from centre144 non-stop destinationsComodoro Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport (SCL)87 km from centre67 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureBostonValparaiso
City population675,647296,655
People per km²2,9106,180
Museums within 10 km5117
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °CNoneNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Boston 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). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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.

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.