VacationSelector
The Metropolitan Cathedral on the Zócalo, Mexico City
Mexico CityThe Metropolitan Cathedral on the Zócalo
A painted funicular on the hillside, Valparaiso
ValparaisoA painted funicular on the hillside

Photos: Mexico City by Oscar Dominguez, Pexels License; Valparaiso by Maclemo, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Mexico City 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 Mexico City for

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

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

Choose Valparaiso for

  • beaches
  • 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. Mexico City 5, Valparaiso 36: Valparaiso leads by 31 points.
Food & drink. Mexico City 90, Valparaiso 50: Mexico City leads by 40 points.
Culture & sights. Mexico City 88, Valparaiso 62: Mexico City leads by 26 points.
Nightlife. Mexico City 80, Valparaiso 56: Mexico City leads by 24 points.
Nature & outdoors. Mexico City 50, Valparaiso 60: Valparaiso leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Mexico City 75, Valparaiso 63: Mexico City leads by 12 points.
Good for families. Mexico City 58, Valparaiso 33: Mexico City leads by 25 points.
Getting around. Mexico City 50, Valparaiso 44: Mexico City leads by 6 points.
Shopping & style. Mexico City 76, Valparaiso 30: Mexico City leads by 46 points.
Affordability. Mexico City 75, Valparaiso 60: Mexico City leads by 15 points.
Live music & performing arts. Mexico City 72, Valparaiso 38: Mexico City leads by 34 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Mexico City 40, Valparaiso 18: Mexico City leads by 22 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Mexico City and Valparaiso.

Your match

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

Mexico City
Best match
63match

Wins on shopping and food and drink with your weighting.

Valparaiso
46match

Wins on beaches 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.

Mexico City in July

25 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
176 mmrain in the month
6 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°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
Mexico CityValparaiso

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. Mexico City: 1991-2020 normals, Mexico Central, D. F. (7.9 km from centre). Valparaiso: 2010-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Viña Del Mar / Montemar (17 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMexico CityValparaiso
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
Elevation2,240 m21 m
Main airportMexico City Benito Juárez International Airport (MEX)7 km from centre109 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

MeasureMexico CityValparaiso
City population9,209,944296,655
People per km²6,2026,180
Museums within 10 km10817
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km61
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 Mexico City 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). 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. 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.

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.