VacationSelector
The Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower, Johannesburg
JohannesburgThe Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower
A painted funicular on the hillside, Valparaiso
ValparaisoA painted funicular on the hillside

Photos: Johannesburg by K, Pexels License; Valparaiso by Maclemo, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Johannesburg 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 Johannesburg for

  • shopping
  • live music and the arts
  • prices

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

Choose Valparaiso for

  • beaches
  • getting around
  • 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. Johannesburg 5, Valparaiso 36: Valparaiso leads by 31 points.
Food & drink. Johannesburg 58, Valparaiso 50: Johannesburg leads by 8 points.
Culture & sights. Johannesburg 56, Valparaiso 62: Valparaiso leads by 6 points.
Nightlife. Johannesburg 62, Valparaiso 56: Johannesburg leads by 6 points.
Nature & outdoors. Johannesburg 55, Valparaiso 60: Valparaiso leads by 5 points.
Day trips. Johannesburg 52, Valparaiso 63: Valparaiso leads by 11 points.
Good for families. Johannesburg 42, Valparaiso 33: Johannesburg leads by 9 points.
Getting around. Johannesburg 18, Valparaiso 44: Valparaiso leads by 26 points.
Shopping & style. Johannesburg 58, Valparaiso 30: Johannesburg leads by 28 points.
Affordability. Johannesburg 72, Valparaiso 60: Johannesburg leads by 12 points.
Live music & performing arts. Johannesburg 55, Valparaiso 38: Johannesburg leads by 17 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Johannesburg 28, Valparaiso 18: Johannesburg leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Johannesburg and Valparaiso.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Johannesburg
47match

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

Valparaiso
46match

Wins on beaches and getting around with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Johannesburg in July

19 °Cdaytime high
4 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
No seasea
11 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

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
JohannesburgValparaiso

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. Johannesburg: 2005-2019 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Johannesburg B / Roosevelt Park (7.3 km from centre). Valparaiso: 2010-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Viña Del Mar / Montemar (17 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureJohannesburgValparaiso
Official languageEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign LanguageSpanish
CurrencyRand (ZAR)Chilean Peso (CLP)
SocketsCMN230 V, 50 HzCL220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+2UTC-4, UTC-3 in summer
Emergency number112Police 133/134, ambulance 131, fire 132
Elevation1,753 m21 m
Main airportO.R. Tambo International Airport (JNB)22 km from centre84 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

MeasureJohannesburgValparaiso
City population4,803,262296,655
People per km²2,9226,180
Museums within 10 km1417
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 Johannesburg 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). 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. 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.