VacationSelector
The coloured houses stepping down to the sea, Positano
PositanoThe coloured houses stepping down to the sea
A painted funicular on the hillside, Valparaiso
ValparaisoA painted funicular on the hillside

Photos: Positano by Bernard Gagnon, CC BY 4.0, cropped; Valparaiso by Maclemo, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Positano 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 Positano for

  • beaches
  • wellness
  • day trips

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

Choose Valparaiso for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • nightlife

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. Positano 77, Valparaiso 36: Positano leads by 41 points.
Food & drink. Positano 40, Valparaiso 50: Valparaiso leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. Positano 22, Valparaiso 62: Valparaiso leads by 40 points.
Nightlife. Positano 22, Valparaiso 56: Valparaiso leads by 34 points.
Nature & outdoors. Positano 80, Valparaiso 60: Positano leads by 20 points.
Day trips. Positano 88, Valparaiso 63: Positano leads by 25 points.
Good for families. Positano 28, Valparaiso 33: Valparaiso leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Positano 35, Valparaiso 44: Valparaiso leads by 9 points.
Shopping & style. Positano 45, Valparaiso 30: Positano leads by 15 points.
Affordability. Positano 10, Valparaiso 60: Valparaiso leads by 50 points.
Live music & performing arts. Positano 15, Valparaiso 38: Valparaiso leads by 23 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Positano 45, Valparaiso 18: Positano leads by 27 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Positano and Valparaiso.

Your match

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

Positano
42match

Wins on beaches and wellness with your weighting.

Valparaiso
Best match
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.

Positano in July

29 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
27 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
25 °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

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
PositanoValparaiso

Where the figures come from

Positano's temperatures are measured 25 km from the centre, at Capri.

Positano 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.

Positano's sunshine is measured 59 km from the centre, at Grazzanise.

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. Positano: 2005-2025 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Capri (25.3 km from centre). Valparaiso: 2010-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Viña Del Mar / Montemar (17 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePositanoValparaiso
Official languageItalianSpanish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Chilean Peso (CLP)
SocketsCFL230 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
Elevation142 m21 m
Main airportNaples International Airport (NAP)33 km from centre131 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

MeasurePositanoValparaiso
City population3,729296,655
People per km²4296,180
Museums within 10 km1017
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km51
Swim season, months above 21 °C5 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

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