VacationSelector
Fort San Pedro in Cebu City, Cebu
CebuFort San Pedro in Cebu City
A painted funicular on the hillside, Valparaiso
ValparaisoA painted funicular on the hillside

Photos: Cebu by xiquinhosilva, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Valparaiso by Maclemo, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Cebu 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 Cebu for

  • wellness
  • beaches
  • prices

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

Choose Valparaiso for

  • culture and sights
  • day trips
  • 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. Cebu 60, Valparaiso 36: Cebu leads by 24 points.
Food & drink. Cebu 58, Valparaiso 50: Cebu leads by 8 points.
Culture & sights. Cebu 40, Valparaiso 62: Valparaiso leads by 22 points.
Nightlife. Cebu 46, Valparaiso 56: Valparaiso leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cebu and Valparaiso are level on 60.
Day trips. Cebu 44, Valparaiso 63: Valparaiso leads by 19 points.
Good for families. Cebu 45, Valparaiso 33: Cebu leads by 12 points.
Getting around. Cebu 26, Valparaiso 44: Valparaiso leads by 18 points.
Shopping & style. Cebu 44, Valparaiso 30: Cebu leads by 14 points.
Affordability. Cebu 80, Valparaiso 60: Cebu leads by 20 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cebu 25, Valparaiso 38: Valparaiso leads by 13 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cebu 50, Valparaiso 18: Cebu leads by 32 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cebu and Valparaiso.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Cebu
48match

Wins on wellness and beaches with your weighting.

Valparaiso
46match

Wins on culture and sights and day trips with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Cebu in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
205 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
CebuValparaiso

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. Cebu: 1991-2020 normals, Mactan (7.1 km from centre). Valparaiso: 2010-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Viña Del Mar / Montemar (17 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCebuValparaiso
Official languageEnglish, Filipino, TaglishSpanish
CurrencyPhilippine Peso (PHP)Chilean Peso (CLP)
SocketsABC220 V, 60 HzCL220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+8UTC-4, UTC-3 in summer
Emergency number911Police 133/134, ambulance 131, fire 132
Elevation135 m21 m
Main airportMactan Cebu International Airport (CEB)9 km from centre41 non-stop destinationsComodoro Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport (SCL)87 km from centre67 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year18 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureCebuValparaiso
City population965,332296,655
People per km²3,0656,180
Museums within 10 km517
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 Cebu 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.