VacationSelector
Skiers at the foot of the slopes in the village, Copper Mountain
Copper MountainSkiers at the foot of the slopes in the village
A painted funicular on the hillside, Valparaiso
ValparaisoA painted funicular on the hillside

Photos: Copper Mountain by SparkFunElectronics, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Valparaiso by Maclemo, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Copper Mountain 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 Copper Mountain for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • families
  • wellness

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

Choose Valparaiso for

  • culture and sights
  • nightlife
  • prices

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. Copper Mountain 3, Valparaiso 36: Valparaiso leads by 33 points.
Food & drink. Copper Mountain 20, Valparaiso 50: Valparaiso leads by 30 points.
Culture & sights. Copper Mountain 4, Valparaiso 62: Valparaiso leads by 58 points.
Nightlife. Copper Mountain 12, Valparaiso 56: Valparaiso leads by 44 points.
Nature & outdoors. Copper Mountain 90, Valparaiso 60: Copper Mountain leads by 30 points.
Day trips. Copper Mountain 55, Valparaiso 63: Valparaiso leads by 8 points.
Good for families. Copper Mountain 62, Valparaiso 33: Copper Mountain leads by 29 points.
Getting around. Copper Mountain 48, Valparaiso 44: Copper Mountain leads by 4 points.
Shopping & style. Copper Mountain 8, Valparaiso 30: Valparaiso leads by 22 points.
Affordability. Copper Mountain 18, Valparaiso 60: Valparaiso leads by 42 points.
Live music & performing arts. Copper Mountain 8, Valparaiso 38: Valparaiso leads by 30 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Copper Mountain 28, Valparaiso 18: Copper Mountain leads by 10 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Copper Mountain
30match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and families with your weighting.

Valparaiso
Best match
46match

Wins on culture and sights 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.

Copper Mountain in July

21 °Cdaytime high
5 °Cnight-time low
41 mmrain in the month
No seasea
15 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

-5°0°5°10°15°20°25°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
Copper MountainValparaiso

Where the figures come from

Copper Mountain's temperatures are measured 35 km from the centre, at Leadville / Stringtown.

Copper Mountain 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.

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. Copper Mountain: 2006-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Leadville / Stringtown (35.2 km from centre). Valparaiso: 2010-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Viña Del Mar / Montemar (17 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCopper MountainValparaiso
Official language-Spanish
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Chilean Peso (CLP)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCL220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-7, UTC-6 in summerUTC-4, UTC-3 in summer
Emergency number911Police 133/134, ambulance 131, fire 132
Elevation2,955 m21 m
Main airportDenver International Airport (DEN)132 km from centre231 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

MeasureCopper MountainValparaiso
City population650296,655
People per km²86,180
Museums within 10 km017
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C-None

Where else could you go?

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

Browse every destination

Sources

Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national 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. 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.