VacationSelector
The clock tower in the old town, Kotor
KotorThe clock tower in the old town
A painted funicular on the hillside, Valparaiso
ValparaisoA painted funicular on the hillside

Photos: Kotor by Muhammed Fatih Beki, Pexels License; Valparaiso by Maclemo, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Kotor 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 Kotor for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • day trips

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

Choose Valparaiso for

  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts
  • food and drink

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. Kotor 57, Valparaiso 36: Kotor leads by 21 points.
Food & drink. Kotor 37, Valparaiso 50: Valparaiso leads by 13 points.
Culture & sights. Kotor 55, Valparaiso 62: Valparaiso leads by 7 points.
Nightlife. Kotor 30, Valparaiso 56: Valparaiso leads by 26 points.
Nature & outdoors. Kotor 80, Valparaiso 60: Kotor leads by 20 points.
Day trips. Kotor 72, Valparaiso 63: Kotor leads by 9 points.
Good for families. Kotor 36, Valparaiso 33: Kotor leads by 3 points.
Getting around. Kotor 48, Valparaiso 44: Kotor leads by 4 points.
Shopping & style. Kotor 20, Valparaiso 30: Valparaiso leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Kotor 57, Valparaiso 60: Valparaiso leads by 3 points.
Live music & performing arts. Kotor 20, Valparaiso 38: Valparaiso leads by 18 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Kotor 24, Valparaiso 18: Kotor leads by 6 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Kotor 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

Kotor
45match

Wins on beaches and nature and the outdoors 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.

Kotor in July

31 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
39 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
25 °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°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
KotorValparaiso

Where the figures come from

Kotor 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.

Kotor's sunshine is measured 42 km from the centre, at Podgorica-Grad.

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. Kotor: 1991-2020 normals, Tivat (4.2 km from centre). Valparaiso: 2010-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Viña Del Mar / Montemar (17 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureKotorValparaiso
Official languageMontenegrinSpanish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Chilean Peso (CLP)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzCL220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-4, UTC-3 in summer
Emergency number112Police 133/134, ambulance 131, fire 132
Elevation10 m21 m
Main airportTivat Airport (TIV)5 km from centre42 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

MeasureKotorValparaiso
City population562296,655
People per km²-6,180
Museums within 10 km317
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km31
Swim season, months above 21 °C5 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Kotor or Valparaiso somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national 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. 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. 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.