VacationSelector
The Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco
San FranciscoThe Golden Gate Bridge
A painted funicular on the hillside, Valparaiso
ValparaisoA painted funicular on the hillside

Photos: San Francisco by Elijah Cobb, Pexels License; Valparaiso by Maclemo, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

San Francisco 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 Francisco for

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

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

Choose Valparaiso for

  • prices
  • beaches

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 Francisco 25, Valparaiso 36: Valparaiso leads by 11 points.
Food & drink. San Francisco 82, Valparaiso 50: San Francisco leads by 32 points.
Culture & sights. San Francisco 68, Valparaiso 62: San Francisco leads by 6 points.
Nightlife. San Francisco 58, Valparaiso 56: San Francisco leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. San Francisco 80, Valparaiso 60: San Francisco leads by 20 points.
Day trips. San Francisco 72, Valparaiso 63: San Francisco leads by 9 points.
Good for families. San Francisco 66, Valparaiso 33: San Francisco leads by 33 points.
Getting around. San Francisco 70, Valparaiso 44: San Francisco leads by 26 points.
Shopping & style. San Francisco 58, Valparaiso 30: San Francisco leads by 28 points.
Affordability. San Francisco 14, Valparaiso 60: Valparaiso leads by 46 points.
Live music & performing arts. San Francisco 76, Valparaiso 38: San Francisco leads by 38 points.
Wellness & relaxation. San Francisco 42, Valparaiso 18: San Francisco leads by 24 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

San Francisco
Best match
59match

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

Valparaiso
46match

Wins on prices and beaches with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

San Francisco in July

22 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
13 °Csea
15 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 FranciscoValparaiso

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 Francisco: 1981-2010 normals, Alameda Naval Air Station (9.1 km from centre). Valparaiso: 2010-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Viña Del Mar / Montemar (17 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSan FranciscoValparaiso
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
Elevation16 m21 m
Main airportSan Francisco International Airport (SFO)18 km from centre142 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 FranciscoValparaiso
City population873,965296,655
People per km²1,4556,180
Museums within 10 km5117
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 San Francisco 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.