VacationSelector
The fountain on Plaza Mayor, Lima
LimaThe fountain on Plaza Mayor
A painted funicular on the hillside, Valparaiso
ValparaisoA painted funicular on the hillside

Photos: Lima by James C., CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Valparaiso by Maclemo, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Lima 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 Lima for

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

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

Choose Valparaiso for

  • day trips
  • 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. Lima 42, Valparaiso 36: Lima leads by 6 points.
Food & drink. Lima 88, Valparaiso 50: Lima leads by 38 points.
Culture & sights. Lima 66, Valparaiso 62: Lima leads by 4 points.
Nightlife. Lima 62, Valparaiso 56: Lima leads by 6 points.
Nature & outdoors. Lima 45, Valparaiso 60: Valparaiso leads by 15 points.
Day trips. Lima 34, Valparaiso 63: Valparaiso leads by 29 points.
Good for families. Lima 42, Valparaiso 33: Lima leads by 9 points.
Getting around. Lima 35, Valparaiso 44: Valparaiso leads by 9 points.
Shopping & style. Lima 52, Valparaiso 30: Lima leads by 22 points.
Affordability. Lima 70, Valparaiso 60: Lima leads by 10 points.
Live music & performing arts. Lima 53, Valparaiso 38: Lima leads by 15 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Lima 25, Valparaiso 18: Lima leads by 7 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Lima
Best match
51match

Wins on food and drink and shopping with your weighting.

Valparaiso
46match

Wins on day trips 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.

Lima in July

19 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
1 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
12 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
LimaValparaiso

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. Lima: 1991-2020 normals, Lima-Callao / Aerop. Internacional Jorgechavez (10.9 km from centre). Valparaiso: 2010-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Viña Del Mar / Montemar (17 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLimaValparaiso
Official languageSpanish, Aymara, QuechuaSpanish
CurrencySol (PEN)Chilean Peso (CLP)
SocketsABC220 V, 60 HzCL220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-4, UTC-3 in summer
Emergency number111 or 911Police 133/134, ambulance 131, fire 132
Elevation154 m21 m
Main airportJorge Chávez International Airport (LIM)9 km from centre61 non-stop destinationsComodoro Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport (SCL)87 km from centre67 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureLimaValparaiso
City population9,943,800296,655
People per km²3,7216,180
Museums within 10 km4717
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
Swim season, months above 21 °C2 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

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