VacationSelector
The Plaza de Armas with the cathedral and La Compañía, Cusco
CuscoThe Plaza de Armas with the cathedral and La Compañía
A painted funicular on the hillside, Valparaiso
ValparaisoA painted funicular on the hillside

Photos: Cusco by Pedro Szekely, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Valparaiso by Maclemo, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Cusco 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 Cusco for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • shopping
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Valparaiso for

  • beaches
  • families
  • 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. Cusco 3, Valparaiso 36: Valparaiso leads by 33 points.
Food & drink. Cusco 56, Valparaiso 50: Cusco leads by 6 points.
Culture & sights. Cusco 81, Valparaiso 62: Cusco leads by 19 points.
Nightlife. Cusco 42, Valparaiso 56: Valparaiso leads by 14 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cusco 86, Valparaiso 60: Cusco leads by 26 points.
Day trips. Cusco 78, Valparaiso 63: Cusco leads by 15 points.
Good for families. Cusco 10, Valparaiso 33: Valparaiso leads by 23 points.
Getting around. Cusco 48, Valparaiso 44: Cusco leads by 4 points.
Shopping & style. Cusco 52, Valparaiso 30: Cusco leads by 22 points.
Affordability. Cusco 73, Valparaiso 60: Cusco leads by 13 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cusco 30, Valparaiso 38: Valparaiso leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cusco 33, Valparaiso 18: Cusco leads by 15 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cusco and Valparaiso.

Your match

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

Cusco
Best match
49match

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

Valparaiso
46match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Cusco in July

20 °Cdaytime high
1 °Cnight-time low
5 mmrain in the month
No seasea
11 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°5°10°15°20°25°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
CuscoValparaiso

Where the figures come from

Cusco's station stands 151 m below the city centre, so the centre is likely a little cooler than the figures say.

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. Cusco: 1991-2020 normals, Cuzco (3.7 km from centre). Valparaiso: 2010-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Viña Del Mar / Montemar (17 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCuscoValparaiso
Official languageSpanish, Aymara, QuechuaSpanish
CurrencySol (PEN)Chilean Peso (CLP)
SocketsABC220 V, 60 HzCL220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-4, UTC-3 in summer
Emergency number111 or 911Police 133/134, ambulance 131, fire 132
Elevation3,399 m21 m
Main airportAlejandro Velasco Astete International Airport (CUZ)5 km from centre6 non-stop destinationsComodoro Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport (SCL)87 km from centre67 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureCuscoValparaiso
City population428,450296,655
People per km²-6,180
Museums within 10 km1117
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
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 Cusco 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. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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. 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.