VacationSelector
The opera house on Place de la Comédie, Montpellier
MontpellierThe opera house on Place de la Comédie
A painted funicular on the hillside, Valparaiso
ValparaisoA painted funicular on the hillside

Photos: Montpellier by Peter, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Valparaiso by Maclemo, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Montpellier 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 Montpellier for

  • getting around
  • families
  • beaches

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

Choose Valparaiso for

  • prices
  • culture and sights

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. Montpellier 64, Valparaiso 36: Montpellier leads by 28 points.
Food & drink. Montpellier 64, Valparaiso 50: Montpellier leads by 14 points.
Culture & sights. Montpellier 60, Valparaiso 62: Valparaiso leads by 2 points.
Nightlife. Montpellier and Valparaiso are level on 56.
Nature & outdoors. Montpellier 72, Valparaiso 60: Montpellier leads by 12 points.
Day trips. Montpellier 85, Valparaiso 63: Montpellier leads by 22 points.
Good for families. Montpellier 62, Valparaiso 33: Montpellier leads by 29 points.
Getting around. Montpellier 74, Valparaiso 44: Montpellier leads by 30 points.
Shopping & style. Montpellier 47, Valparaiso 30: Montpellier leads by 17 points.
Affordability. Montpellier 50, Valparaiso 60: Valparaiso leads by 10 points.
Live music & performing arts. Montpellier 63, Valparaiso 38: Montpellier leads by 25 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Montpellier 42, Valparaiso 18: Montpellier leads by 24 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Montpellier
Best match
62match

Wins on getting around and families with your weighting.

Valparaiso
46match

Wins on prices and culture and sights with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Montpellier in July

30 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
17 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
21 °Csea
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°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
MontpellierValparaiso

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. Montpellier: 1991-2020 normals, Montpellier (7.8 km from centre). Valparaiso: 2010-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Viña Del Mar / Montemar (17 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMontpellierValparaiso
Official languageFrenchSpanish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Chilean Peso (CLP)
SocketsCE230 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
Elevation7 m21 m
Main airportMontpellier-Méditerranée Airport (MPL)8 km from centre41 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

MeasureMontpellierValparaiso
City population310,240296,655
People per km²5,4526,180
Museums within 10 km1417
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
Swim season, months above 21 °C2 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

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