VacationSelector
The coastline of the Hotel Zone, Cancun
CancunThe coastline of the Hotel Zone
A painted funicular on the hillside, Valparaiso
ValparaisoA painted funicular on the hillside

Photos: Cancun by Tellez Erik, Pexels License; Valparaiso by Maclemo, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Cancun 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 Cancun for

  • beaches
  • families
  • wellness

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

Choose Valparaiso for

  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts
  • getting around

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. Cancun 98, Valparaiso 36: Cancun leads by 62 points.
Food & drink. Cancun 44, Valparaiso 50: Valparaiso leads by 6 points.
Culture & sights. Cancun 15, Valparaiso 62: Valparaiso leads by 47 points.
Nightlife. Cancun 70, Valparaiso 56: Cancun leads by 14 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cancun 66, Valparaiso 60: Cancun leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Cancun 65, Valparaiso 63: Cancun leads by 2 points.
Good for families. Cancun 78, Valparaiso 33: Cancun leads by 45 points.
Getting around. Cancun 25, Valparaiso 44: Valparaiso leads by 19 points.
Shopping & style. Cancun 40, Valparaiso 30: Cancun leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Cancun 46, Valparaiso 60: Valparaiso leads by 14 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cancun 17, Valparaiso 38: Valparaiso leads by 21 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cancun 55, Valparaiso 18: Cancun leads by 37 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cancun and Valparaiso.

Your match

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

Cancun
Best match
52match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

Valparaiso
46match

Wins on culture and sights and live music and the arts with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Cancun in July

30 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
89 mmrain in the month
29 °Csea
13 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°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
CancunValparaiso

Where the figures come from

Cancun has no weather station within reach, so its figures come from a gridded climate model rather than a measured record, and read a broad area rather than the city itself.

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. Cancun: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km. Valparaiso: 2010-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Viña Del Mar / Montemar (17 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCancunValparaiso
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaSpanish
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Chilean Peso (CLP)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzCL220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-4, UTC-3 in summer
Emergency number911Police 133/134, ambulance 131, fire 132
Elevation5 m21 m
Main airportCancún International Airport (CUN)14 km from centre137 non-stop destinationsComodoro Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport (SCL)87 km from centre67 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureCancunValparaiso
City population888,797296,655
People per km²-6,180
Museums within 10 km117
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Cancun or Valparaiso somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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. Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. 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.