VacationSelector
Cardiff Castle, Cardiff
CardiffCardiff Castle
A painted funicular on the hillside, Valparaiso
ValparaisoA painted funicular on the hillside

Photos: Cardiff by Tevfik Teker, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Valparaiso by Maclemo, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Cardiff 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 Cardiff for

  • families
  • getting around
  • shopping

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

Choose Valparaiso for

  • prices
  • 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. Cardiff 30, Valparaiso 36: Valparaiso leads by 6 points.
Food & drink. Cardiff 45, Valparaiso 50: Valparaiso leads by 5 points.
Culture & sights. Cardiff 58, Valparaiso 62: Valparaiso leads by 4 points.
Nightlife. Cardiff 50, Valparaiso 56: Valparaiso leads by 6 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cardiff 70, Valparaiso 60: Cardiff leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Cardiff 72, Valparaiso 63: Cardiff leads by 9 points.
Good for families. Cardiff 58, Valparaiso 33: Cardiff leads by 25 points.
Getting around. Cardiff 66, Valparaiso 44: Cardiff leads by 22 points.
Shopping & style. Cardiff 50, Valparaiso 30: Cardiff leads by 20 points.
Affordability. Cardiff 46, Valparaiso 60: Valparaiso leads by 14 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cardiff 57, Valparaiso 38: Cardiff leads by 19 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cardiff 27, Valparaiso 18: Cardiff leads by 9 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cardiff and Valparaiso.

Your match

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

Cardiff
Best match
52match

Wins on families and getting around with your weighting.

Valparaiso
46match

Wins on prices 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.

Cardiff in July

20 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
83 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
17 °Csea
16 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°5°10°15°20°25°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
CardiffValparaiso

Where the figures come from

Cardiff 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.

Cardiff's sunshine is measured 83 km from the centre, at Lyneham.

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. Cardiff: 1991-2020 normals, Cardiff-Wales Airport (14.9 km from centre). Valparaiso: 2010-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Viña Del Mar / Montemar (17 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCardiffValparaiso
Official languageEnglishSpanish
CurrencyPound Sterling (GBP)Chilean Peso (CLP)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzCL220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC-4, UTC-3 in summer
Emergency number112 or 999Police 133/134, ambulance 131, fire 132
Elevation41 m21 m
Main airportCardiff International Airport (CWL)15 km from centre30 non-stop destinationsComodoro Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport (SCL)87 km from centre67 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year8 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureCardiffValparaiso
City population383,536296,655
People per km²2,7346,180
Museums within 10 km917
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
Swim season, months above 21 °CNoneNone

Where else could you go?

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