VacationSelector
Painted colonial houses in the Pelourinho, Salvador
SalvadorPainted colonial houses in the Pelourinho
A painted funicular on the hillside, Valparaiso
ValparaisoA painted funicular on the hillside

Photos: Salvador by Paul R. Burley, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Valparaiso by Maclemo, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Salvador 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 Salvador for

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

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

Choose Valparaiso for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • 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. Salvador 84, Valparaiso 36: Salvador leads by 48 points.
Food & drink. Salvador 66, Valparaiso 50: Salvador leads by 16 points.
Culture & sights. Salvador 74, Valparaiso 62: Salvador leads by 12 points.
Nightlife. Salvador 70, Valparaiso 56: Salvador leads by 14 points.
Nature & outdoors. Salvador 52, Valparaiso 60: Valparaiso leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Salvador 56, Valparaiso 63: Valparaiso leads by 7 points.
Good for families. Salvador 42, Valparaiso 33: Salvador leads by 9 points.
Getting around. Salvador 42, Valparaiso 44: Valparaiso leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Salvador 42, Valparaiso 30: Salvador leads by 12 points.
Affordability. Salvador 70, Valparaiso 60: Salvador leads by 10 points.
Live music & performing arts. Salvador 63, Valparaiso 38: Salvador leads by 25 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Salvador 32, Valparaiso 18: Salvador leads by 14 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Salvador and Valparaiso.

Your match

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

Salvador
Best match
58match

Wins on beaches and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Valparaiso
46match

Wins on nature and the outdoors 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.

Salvador in July

27 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
201 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
26 °Csea
11 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°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
SalvadorValparaiso

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. Salvador: 1991-2020 normals, Salvador (4.5 km from centre). Valparaiso: 2010-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Viña Del Mar / Montemar (17 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSalvadorValparaiso
Official languagePortugueseSpanish
CurrencyBrazilian Real (BRL)Chilean Peso (CLP)
SocketsCN60 HzCL220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-3UTC-4, UTC-3 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 190, ambulance 192, fire 193Police 133/134, ambulance 131, fire 132
Elevation8 m21 m
Main airportDeputado Luiz Eduardo Magalhães International Airport (SSA)20 km from centre31 non-stop destinationsComodoro Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport (SCL)87 km from centre67 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureSalvadorValparaiso
City population2,417,678296,655
People per km²3,4896,180
Museums within 10 km4917
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
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 Salvador 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.