VacationSelector
The Dutch Reformed Church in Galle Fort, Galle
GalleThe Dutch Reformed Church in Galle Fort
A painted funicular on the hillside, Valparaiso
ValparaisoA painted funicular on the hillside

Photos: Galle by Francisco Anzola, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Valparaiso by Maclemo, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Galle 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 Galle for

  • wellness
  • beaches
  • prices

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

Choose Valparaiso for

  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts
  • day trips

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. Galle 80, Valparaiso 36: Galle leads by 44 points.
Food & drink. Galle and Valparaiso are level on 50.
Culture & sights. Galle 55, Valparaiso 62: Valparaiso leads by 7 points.
Nightlife. Galle 18, Valparaiso 56: Valparaiso leads by 38 points.
Nature & outdoors. Galle 66, Valparaiso 60: Galle leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Galle 50, Valparaiso 63: Valparaiso leads by 13 points.
Good for families. Galle 42, Valparaiso 33: Galle leads by 9 points.
Getting around. Galle 35, Valparaiso 44: Valparaiso leads by 9 points.
Shopping & style. Galle 33, Valparaiso 30: Galle leads by 3 points.
Affordability. Galle 72, Valparaiso 60: Galle leads by 12 points.
Live music & performing arts. Galle 10, Valparaiso 38: Valparaiso leads by 28 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Galle 70, Valparaiso 18: Galle leads by 52 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Galle 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

Galle
48match

Wins on wellness and beaches with your weighting.

Valparaiso
46match

Wins on nightlife and live music and the arts with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Galle in July

28 °Cdaytime high
27 °Cnight-time low
116 mmrain in the month
28 °Csea
12 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°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
GalleValparaiso

Where the figures come from

Galle has no weather station within reach, so its figures come from a gridded climate model rather than a measured record, and read a broad area rather than the city itself.

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. Galle: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km. Valparaiso: 2010-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Viña Del Mar / Montemar (17 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureGalleValparaiso
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
Elevation0 m21 m
Main airportBandaranaike International Colombo Airport (CMB)133 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

MeasureGalleValparaiso
City population93,118296,655
People per km²-6,180
Museums within 10 km217
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
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 Galle or Valparaiso somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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. Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. 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.