VacationSelector
The twin towers of the cathedral over Plaza de Armas, Guadalajara
GuadalajaraThe twin towers of the cathedral over Plaza de Armas
A painted funicular on the hillside, Valparaiso
ValparaisoA painted funicular on the hillside

Photos: Guadalajara by Ponchomx, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Valparaiso by Maclemo, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Guadalajara 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 Guadalajara for

  • shopping
  • food and drink
  • families

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

Choose Valparaiso for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • 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. Guadalajara 5, Valparaiso 36: Valparaiso leads by 31 points.
Food & drink. Guadalajara 75, Valparaiso 50: Guadalajara leads by 25 points.
Culture & sights. Guadalajara and Valparaiso are level on 62.
Nightlife. Guadalajara 68, Valparaiso 56: Guadalajara leads by 12 points.
Nature & outdoors. Guadalajara 55, Valparaiso 60: Valparaiso leads by 5 points.
Day trips. Guadalajara 66, Valparaiso 63: Guadalajara leads by 3 points.
Good for families. Guadalajara 55, Valparaiso 33: Guadalajara leads by 22 points.
Getting around. Guadalajara 40, Valparaiso 44: Valparaiso leads by 4 points.
Shopping & style. Guadalajara 60, Valparaiso 30: Guadalajara leads by 30 points.
Affordability. Guadalajara 78, Valparaiso 60: Guadalajara leads by 18 points.
Live music & performing arts. Guadalajara 60, Valparaiso 38: Guadalajara leads by 22 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Guadalajara 35, Valparaiso 18: Guadalajara leads by 17 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Guadalajara
Best match
55match

Wins on shopping and food and drink with your weighting.

Valparaiso
46match

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

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Guadalajara in July

25 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
205 mmrain in the month
No seasea
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
GuadalajaraValparaiso

Where the figures come from

Guadalajara 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. Guadalajara: 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

MeasureGuadalajaraValparaiso
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaSpanish
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Chilean Peso (CLP)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzCL220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC-4, UTC-3 in summer
Emergency number911Police 133/134, ambulance 131, fire 132
Elevation1,536 m21 m
Main airportGuadalajara International Airport (GDL)17 km from centre70 non-stop destinationsComodoro Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport (SCL)87 km from centre67 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureGuadalajaraValparaiso
City population1,385,621296,655
People per km²9,5566,180
Museums within 10 km1717
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 Guadalajara 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. 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. Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.