VacationSelector
The Blue Mosque, Istanbul
IstanbulThe Blue Mosque
A painted funicular on the hillside, Valparaiso
ValparaisoA painted funicular on the hillside

Photos: Istanbul by AXP Photography, Pexels License; Valparaiso by Maclemo, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Istanbul 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 Istanbul for

  • wellness
  • shopping
  • food and drink

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

Choose Valparaiso for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • 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. Istanbul 45, Valparaiso 36: Istanbul leads by 9 points.
Food & drink. Istanbul 87, Valparaiso 50: Istanbul leads by 37 points.
Culture & sights. Istanbul 90, Valparaiso 62: Istanbul leads by 28 points.
Nightlife. Istanbul 77, Valparaiso 56: Istanbul leads by 21 points.
Nature & outdoors. Istanbul 52, Valparaiso 60: Valparaiso leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Istanbul 55, Valparaiso 63: Valparaiso leads by 8 points.
Good for families. Istanbul 55, Valparaiso 33: Istanbul leads by 22 points.
Getting around. Istanbul 62, Valparaiso 44: Istanbul leads by 18 points.
Shopping & style. Istanbul 86, Valparaiso 30: Istanbul leads by 56 points.
Affordability. Istanbul and Valparaiso are level on 60.
Live music & performing arts. Istanbul 62, Valparaiso 38: Istanbul leads by 24 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Istanbul 75, Valparaiso 18: Istanbul leads by 57 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Istanbul
Best match
67match

Wins on wellness and shopping with your weighting.

Valparaiso
46match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and day trips with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Istanbul in July

30 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
23 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
23 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Valparaiso in July

15 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
71 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
13 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
IstanbulValparaiso

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. Istanbul: 1991-2020 normals, Istanbul / Goztepe (9.9 km from centre). Valparaiso: 2010-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Viña Del Mar / Montemar (17 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureIstanbulValparaiso
Official languageTurkishSpanish
CurrencyTurkish Lira (TRY)Chilean Peso (CLP)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzCL220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+3UTC-4, UTC-3 in summer
Emergency number112Police 133/134, ambulance 131, fire 132
Elevation100 m21 m
Main airportİstanbul Airport (IST)36 km from centre343 non-stop destinationsComodoro Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport (SCL)87 km from centre67 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureIstanbulValparaiso
City population15,655,924296,655
People per km²2,9306,180
Museums within 10 km7317
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
Swim season, months above 21 °C3 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Istanbul 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). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.