VacationSelector
The Botanical Building, Balboa Park, San Diego
San DiegoThe Botanical Building, Balboa Park
A painted funicular on the hillside, Valparaiso
ValparaisoA painted funicular on the hillside

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

San Diego 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 San Diego for

  • families
  • beaches
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on San Diego’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. San Diego 72, Valparaiso 36: San Diego leads by 36 points.
Food & drink. San Diego 62, Valparaiso 50: San Diego leads by 12 points.
Culture & sights. San Diego 50, Valparaiso 62: Valparaiso leads by 12 points.
Nightlife. San Diego 48, Valparaiso 56: Valparaiso leads by 8 points.
Nature & outdoors. San Diego 77, Valparaiso 60: San Diego leads by 17 points.
Day trips. San Diego 60, Valparaiso 63: Valparaiso leads by 3 points.
Good for families. San Diego 96, Valparaiso 33: San Diego leads by 63 points.
Getting around. San Diego 38, Valparaiso 44: Valparaiso leads by 6 points.
Shopping & style. San Diego 44, Valparaiso 30: San Diego leads by 14 points.
Affordability. San Diego 26, Valparaiso 60: Valparaiso leads by 34 points.
Live music & performing arts. San Diego 56, Valparaiso 38: San Diego leads by 18 points.
Wellness & relaxation. San Diego 45, Valparaiso 18: San Diego leads by 27 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

San Diego
Best match
56match

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.

San Diego in July

24 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
2 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°5°10°15°20°25°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
San DiegoValparaiso

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. San Diego: 1991-2020 normals, San Diego International Airport (2.8 km from centre). Valparaiso: 2010-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Viña Del Mar / Montemar (17 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSan DiegoValparaiso
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
Elevation129 m21 m
Main airportSan Diego International Airport (SAN)3 km from centre87 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

MeasureSan DiegoValparaiso
City population1,386,932296,655
People per km²1,4386,180
Museums within 10 km2617
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C1 monthNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow San Diego 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.