VacationSelector
The yellow Palacio Canton on Paseo de Montejo, Merida
MeridaThe yellow Palacio Canton on Paseo de Montejo
A painted funicular on the hillside, Valparaiso
ValparaisoA painted funicular on the hillside

Photos: Merida by Mariposa2723, CC BY 4.0, cropped; Valparaiso by Maclemo, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Merida 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 Merida for

  • food and drink
  • wellness
  • shopping

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

Choose Valparaiso for

  • nightlife
  • nature and the outdoors

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. Merida 50, Valparaiso 36: Merida leads by 14 points.
Food & drink. Merida 72, Valparaiso 50: Merida leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. Merida 64, Valparaiso 62: Merida leads by 2 points.
Nightlife. Merida 42, Valparaiso 56: Valparaiso leads by 14 points.
Nature & outdoors. Merida 48, Valparaiso 60: Valparaiso leads by 12 points.
Day trips. Merida 80, Valparaiso 63: Merida leads by 17 points.
Good for families. Merida 50, Valparaiso 33: Merida leads by 17 points.
Getting around. Merida 45, Valparaiso 44: Merida leads by 1 points.
Shopping & style. Merida 50, Valparaiso 30: Merida leads by 20 points.
Affordability. Merida 75, Valparaiso 60: Merida leads by 15 points.
Live music & performing arts. Merida 52, Valparaiso 38: Merida leads by 14 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Merida 40, Valparaiso 18: Merida leads by 22 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Merida and Valparaiso.

Your match

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

Merida
Best match
56match

Wins on food and drink and wellness with your weighting.

Valparaiso
46match

Wins on nightlife 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.

Merida in July

35 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
148 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
27 °Csea
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

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
MeridaValparaiso

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. Merida: 1991-2020 normals, Merida / lic Manuel Crecencio (5.1 km from centre). Valparaiso: 2010-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Viña Del Mar / Montemar (17 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMeridaValparaiso
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaSpanish
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Chilean Peso (CLP)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzCL220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC-4, UTC-3 in summer
Emergency number911Police 133/134, ambulance 131, fire 132
Elevation12 m21 m
Main airportManuel Crescencio Rejón International Airport (MID)5 km from centre22 non-stop destinationsComodoro Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport (SCL)87 km from centre67 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureMeridaValparaiso
City population892,363296,655
People per km²1,0106,180
Museums within 10 km517
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

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