VacationSelector
Beira Lake with Seema Malaka and the Lotus Tower, Colombo
ColomboBeira Lake with Seema Malaka and the Lotus Tower
A painted funicular on the hillside, Valparaiso
ValparaisoA painted funicular on the hillside

Photos: Colombo by Mohamed Ansaf, Pexels License; Valparaiso by Maclemo, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Colombo 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 Colombo for

  • wellness
  • beaches
  • prices

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

Choose Valparaiso for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • nightlife
  • culture and sights

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. Colombo 55, Valparaiso 36: Colombo leads by 19 points.
Food & drink. Colombo 66, Valparaiso 50: Colombo leads by 16 points.
Culture & sights. Colombo 45, Valparaiso 62: Valparaiso leads by 17 points.
Nightlife. Colombo 35, Valparaiso 56: Valparaiso leads by 21 points.
Nature & outdoors. Colombo 32, Valparaiso 60: Valparaiso leads by 28 points.
Day trips. Colombo 50, Valparaiso 63: Valparaiso leads by 13 points.
Good for families. Colombo 35, Valparaiso 33: Colombo leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Colombo 35, Valparaiso 44: Valparaiso leads by 9 points.
Shopping & style. Colombo 45, Valparaiso 30: Colombo leads by 15 points.
Affordability. Colombo 78, Valparaiso 60: Colombo leads by 18 points.
Live music & performing arts. Colombo 30, Valparaiso 38: Valparaiso leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Colombo 48, Valparaiso 18: Colombo leads by 30 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Colombo and Valparaiso.

Your match

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

Too close to call, level with your weighting

Colombo
46match

Wins on wellness and beaches with your weighting.

Valparaiso
46match

Wins on nature and the outdoors 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.

Colombo in July

30 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
128 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
28 °Csea
13 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°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
ColomboValparaiso

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. Colombo: 1991-2020 normals, Colombo (3 km from centre). Valparaiso: 2010-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Viña Del Mar / Montemar (17 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureColomboValparaiso
Official languageTamil, SinhalaSpanish
CurrencySri Lanka Rupee (LKR)Chilean Peso (CLP)
SocketsGM230 V, 50 HzCL220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+5:30UTC-4, UTC-3 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 119, ambulance 110, fire 110Police 133/134, ambulance 131, fire 132
Elevation1 m21 m
Main airportBandaranaike International Colombo Airport (CMB)28 km from centre56 non-stop destinationsComodoro Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport (SCL)87 km from centre67 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-16 days

By the numbers

MeasureColomboValparaiso
City population647,557296,655
People per km²17,3616,180
Museums within 10 km1017
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 Colombo 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). 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. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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.