VacationSelector
Waterfront houses on Harbor Island in Newport Harbor, Newport Beach
Newport BeachWaterfront houses on Harbor Island in Newport Harbor
A painted funicular on the hillside, Valparaiso
ValparaisoA painted funicular on the hillside

Photos: Newport Beach by Don Ramey Logan, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Valparaiso by Maclemo, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Newport Beach 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 Newport Beach for

  • families
  • beaches
  • shopping

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

Choose Valparaiso for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • 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. Newport Beach 70, Valparaiso 36: Newport Beach leads by 34 points.
Food & drink. Newport Beach and Valparaiso are level on 50.
Culture & sights. Newport Beach 20, Valparaiso 62: Valparaiso leads by 42 points.
Nightlife. Newport Beach 33, Valparaiso 56: Valparaiso leads by 23 points.
Nature & outdoors. Newport Beach 66, Valparaiso 60: Newport Beach leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Newport Beach 70, Valparaiso 63: Newport Beach leads by 7 points.
Good for families. Newport Beach 80, Valparaiso 33: Newport Beach leads by 47 points.
Getting around. Newport Beach 20, Valparaiso 44: Valparaiso leads by 24 points.
Shopping & style. Newport Beach 62, Valparaiso 30: Newport Beach leads by 32 points.
Affordability. Newport Beach 15, Valparaiso 60: Valparaiso leads by 45 points.
Live music & performing arts. Newport Beach 46, Valparaiso 38: Newport Beach leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Newport Beach 44, Valparaiso 18: Newport Beach leads by 26 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Newport Beach
48match

Wins on families and beaches 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.

Newport Beach in July

26 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
20 °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°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
Newport BeachValparaiso

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. Newport Beach: 1991-2020 (rainfall 1981-2010) normals, Santa Ana / Paularino (7.1 km from centre). Valparaiso: 2010-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Viña Del Mar / Montemar (17 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureNewport BeachValparaiso
Official language-Spanish
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Chilean Peso (CLP)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCL220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-8, UTC-7 in summerUTC-4, UTC-3 in summer
Emergency number911Police 133/134, ambulance 131, fire 132
Elevation3 m21 m
Main airportJohn Wayne Orange County International Airport (SNA)7 km from centre53 non-stop destinationsComodoro Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport (SCL)87 km from centre67 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureNewport BeachValparaiso
City population85,239296,655
People per km²6226,180
Museums within 10 km417
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °CNoneNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Newport Beach 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.