VacationSelector
A lifeguard stand on South Beach, Miami
MiamiA lifeguard stand on South Beach
A painted funicular on the hillside, Valparaiso
ValparaisoA painted funicular on the hillside

Photos: Miami by Radomianin, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Valparaiso by Maclemo, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Miami 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 Miami for

  • beaches
  • shopping
  • families

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

Choose Valparaiso for

  • prices
  • day trips
  • 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. Miami 90, Valparaiso 36: Miami leads by 54 points.
Food & drink. Miami 72, Valparaiso 50: Miami leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. Miami 57, Valparaiso 62: Valparaiso leads by 5 points.
Nightlife. Miami 82, Valparaiso 56: Miami leads by 26 points.
Nature & outdoors. Miami 64, Valparaiso 60: Miami leads by 4 points.
Day trips. Miami 42, Valparaiso 63: Valparaiso leads by 21 points.
Good for families. Miami 64, Valparaiso 33: Miami leads by 31 points.
Getting around. Miami 35, Valparaiso 44: Valparaiso leads by 9 points.
Shopping & style. Miami 71, Valparaiso 30: Miami leads by 41 points.
Affordability. Miami 27, Valparaiso 60: Valparaiso leads by 33 points.
Live music & performing arts. Miami 55, Valparaiso 38: Miami leads by 17 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Miami 44, Valparaiso 18: Miami leads by 26 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Miami
Best match
59match

Wins on beaches and shopping with your weighting.

Valparaiso
46match

Wins on prices 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.

Miami in July

33 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
186 mmrain in the month
29 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Valparaiso in July

15 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
71 mmrain in the month
13 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
MiamiValparaiso

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. Miami: 1991-2020 normals, Miami International Airport (10 km from centre). Valparaiso: 2010-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Viña Del Mar / Montemar (17 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMiamiValparaiso
Official language-Spanish
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Chilean Peso (CLP)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCL220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC-4, UTC-3 in summer
Emergency number911Police 133/134, ambulance 131, fire 132
Elevation2 m21 m
Main airportMiami International Airport (MIA)7 km from centre198 non-stop destinationsComodoro Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport (SCL)87 km from centre67 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureMiamiValparaiso
City population442,241296,655
People per km²3,0466,180
Museums within 10 km1717
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 Miami 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.