VacationSelector
The Royal Palace, Madrid
MadridThe Royal Palace
A painted funicular on the hillside, Valparaiso
ValparaisoA painted funicular on the hillside

Photos: Madrid by Mert Ocak, Pexels License; Valparaiso by Maclemo, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Madrid 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 Madrid for

  • shopping
  • getting around
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Valparaiso for

  • beaches
  • prices

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. Madrid 5, Valparaiso 36: Valparaiso leads by 31 points.
Food & drink. Madrid 80, Valparaiso 50: Madrid leads by 30 points.
Culture & sights. Madrid 86, Valparaiso 62: Madrid leads by 24 points.
Nightlife. Madrid 85, Valparaiso 56: Madrid leads by 29 points.
Nature & outdoors. Madrid and Valparaiso are level on 60.
Day trips. Madrid 89, Valparaiso 63: Madrid leads by 26 points.
Good for families. Madrid 68, Valparaiso 33: Madrid leads by 35 points.
Getting around. Madrid 84, Valparaiso 44: Madrid leads by 40 points.
Shopping & style. Madrid 75, Valparaiso 30: Madrid leads by 45 points.
Affordability. Madrid 50, Valparaiso 60: Valparaiso leads by 10 points.
Live music & performing arts. Madrid 77, Valparaiso 38: Madrid leads by 39 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Madrid 36, Valparaiso 18: Madrid leads by 18 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Madrid
Best match
66match

Wins on shopping and getting around with your weighting.

Valparaiso
46match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Madrid in July

33 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
9 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
No seasea
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

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
MadridValparaiso

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. Madrid: 1991-2020 normals, Madrid (1.7 km from centre). Valparaiso: 2010-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Viña Del Mar / Montemar (17 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMadridValparaiso
Official languageSpanishSpanish
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
Elevation663 m21 m
Main airportAdolfo Suárez Madrid–Barajas Airport (MAD)14 km from centre239 non-stop destinationsComodoro Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport (SCL)87 km from centre67 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureMadridValparaiso
City population3,506,730296,655
People per km²5,8016,180
Museums within 10 km8817
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km41
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 Madrid 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). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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. 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. 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.