VacationSelector
Wat Xieng Thong temple, Luang Prabang
Luang PrabangWat Xieng Thong temple
A painted funicular on the hillside, Valparaiso
ValparaisoA painted funicular on the hillside

Photos: Luang Prabang by Basile Morin, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Valparaiso by Maclemo, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Luang Prabang 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 Luang Prabang for

  • wellness
  • prices
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Valparaiso for

  • nightlife
  • day trips
  • beaches

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. Luang Prabang 14, Valparaiso 36: Valparaiso leads by 22 points.
Food & drink. Luang Prabang 42, Valparaiso 50: Valparaiso leads by 8 points.
Culture & sights. Luang Prabang 65, Valparaiso 62: Luang Prabang leads by 3 points.
Nightlife. Luang Prabang 8, Valparaiso 56: Valparaiso leads by 48 points.
Nature & outdoors. Luang Prabang 68, Valparaiso 60: Luang Prabang leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Luang Prabang 35, Valparaiso 63: Valparaiso leads by 28 points.
Good for families. Luang Prabang 38, Valparaiso 33: Luang Prabang leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Luang Prabang 50, Valparaiso 44: Luang Prabang leads by 6 points.
Shopping & style. Luang Prabang 38, Valparaiso 30: Luang Prabang leads by 8 points.
Affordability. Luang Prabang 80, Valparaiso 60: Luang Prabang leads by 20 points.
Live music & performing arts. Luang Prabang 18, Valparaiso 38: Valparaiso leads by 20 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Luang Prabang 60, Valparaiso 18: Luang Prabang leads by 42 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Luang Prabang and Valparaiso.

Your match

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

Luang Prabang
43match

Wins on wellness and prices with your weighting.

Valparaiso
Best match
46match

Wins on nightlife 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.

Luang Prabang in July

33 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
250 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
No seasea
13 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

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
Luang PrabangValparaiso

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. Luang Prabang: 1991-2020 normals, Luang-Prabang (0.8 km from centre). Valparaiso: 2010-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Viña Del Mar / Montemar (17 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLuang PrabangValparaiso
Official languageLaoSpanish
CurrencyLao Kip (LAK)Chilean Peso (CLP)
SocketsABCEF230 V, 50 HzCL220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+7UTC-4, UTC-3 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 191, ambulance 195, fire 190Police 133/134, ambulance 131, fire 132
Elevation305 m21 m
Main airportLuang Phabang International Airport (LPQ)4 km from centre7 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

MeasureLuang PrabangValparaiso
City population53,792296,655
People per km²-6,180
Museums within 10 km017
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
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 Luang Prabang 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). 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. 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.