VacationSelector
The Winchester Mystery House, San Jose
San JoseThe Winchester Mystery House
A painted funicular on the hillside, Valparaiso
ValparaisoA painted funicular on the hillside

Photos: San Jose by Roxanna Salceda, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Valparaiso by Maclemo, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

San Jose 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 Jose for

  • families
  • shopping
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on San Jose’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 Jose 30, Valparaiso 36: Valparaiso leads by 6 points.
Food & drink. San Jose 56, Valparaiso 50: San Jose leads by 6 points.
Culture & sights. San Jose 36, Valparaiso 62: Valparaiso leads by 26 points.
Nightlife. San Jose 33, Valparaiso 56: Valparaiso leads by 23 points.
Nature & outdoors. San Jose 72, Valparaiso 60: San Jose leads by 12 points.
Day trips. San Jose 78, Valparaiso 63: San Jose leads by 15 points.
Good for families. San Jose 65, Valparaiso 33: San Jose leads by 32 points.
Getting around. San Jose 30, Valparaiso 44: Valparaiso leads by 14 points.
Shopping & style. San Jose 48, Valparaiso 30: San Jose leads by 18 points.
Affordability. San Jose 20, Valparaiso 60: Valparaiso leads by 40 points.
Live music & performing arts. San Jose and Valparaiso are level on 38.
Wellness & relaxation. San Jose 30, Valparaiso 18: San Jose leads by 12 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

San Jose
45match

Wins on families and shopping 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 Jose in July

27 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
14 °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°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
San JoseValparaiso

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 Jose: 1991-2020 normals, San Jose / Santa Clara Trailer Village (8.2 km from centre). Valparaiso: 2010-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Viña Del Mar / Montemar (17 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSan JoseValparaiso
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
Elevation25 m21 m
Main airportMineta San Jose International Airport (SJC)8 km from centre38 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 JoseValparaiso
City population1,013,240296,655
People per km²2,1676,180
Museums within 10 km1917
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 Jose 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.