VacationSelector
Huntington Beach Pier on a summer day, Huntington Beach
Huntington BeachHuntington Beach Pier on a summer day
A painted funicular on the hillside, Valparaiso
ValparaisoA painted funicular on the hillside

Photos: Huntington Beach by Stephen Leonardi, Pexels License; Valparaiso by Maclemo, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Huntington Beach 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 Huntington Beach for

  • families
  • beaches
  • wellness

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

Choose Valparaiso for

  • culture and sights
  • prices
  • 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. Huntington Beach 70, Valparaiso 36: Huntington Beach leads by 34 points.
Food & drink. Huntington Beach 46, Valparaiso 50: Valparaiso leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. Huntington Beach 14, Valparaiso 62: Valparaiso leads by 48 points.
Nightlife. Huntington Beach 38, Valparaiso 56: Valparaiso leads by 18 points.
Nature & outdoors. Huntington Beach 58, Valparaiso 60: Valparaiso leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Huntington Beach and Valparaiso are level on 63.
Good for families. Huntington Beach 82, Valparaiso 33: Huntington Beach leads by 49 points.
Getting around. Huntington Beach 20, Valparaiso 44: Valparaiso leads by 24 points.
Shopping & style. Huntington Beach 42, Valparaiso 30: Huntington Beach leads by 12 points.
Affordability. Huntington Beach 28, Valparaiso 60: Valparaiso leads by 32 points.
Live music & performing arts. Huntington Beach 33, Valparaiso 38: Valparaiso leads by 5 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Huntington Beach 36, Valparaiso 18: Huntington Beach leads by 18 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Huntington Beach 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

Huntington Beach
44match

Wins on families and beaches with your weighting.

Valparaiso
46match

Wins on culture and sights and prices with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Huntington Beach in July

26 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
20 °Csea
14 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

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
Huntington BeachValparaiso

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. Huntington Beach: 1991-2020 normals, Santa Ana / Paularino (12.3 km from centre). Valparaiso: 2010-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Viña Del Mar / Montemar (17 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureHuntington BeachValparaiso
Official language-Spanish
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Chilean Peso (CLP)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCL220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-8, UTC-7 in summerUTC-4, UTC-3 in summer
Emergency number911Police 133/134, ambulance 131, fire 132
Elevation12 m21 m
Main airportJohn Wayne Orange County International Airport (SNA)12 km from centre53 non-stop destinationsComodoro Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport (SCL)87 km from centre67 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureHuntington BeachValparaiso
City population198,711296,655
People per km²2,4066,180
Museums within 10 km317
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °CNoneNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Huntington Beach 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). 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. 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.