VacationSelector
A cobbled street of painted houses in the old town, San Miguel de Allende
San Miguel de AllendeA cobbled street of painted houses in the old town
A painted funicular on the hillside, Valparaiso
ValparaisoA painted funicular on the hillside

Photos: San Miguel de Allende by Russ Bowling, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Valparaiso by Maclemo, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

San Miguel de Allende 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 Miguel de Allende for

  • wellness
  • shopping
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on San Miguel de Allende’s own page.

Choose Valparaiso for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • 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 Miguel de Allende 4, Valparaiso 36: Valparaiso leads by 32 points.
Food & drink. San Miguel de Allende 62, Valparaiso 50: San Miguel de Allende leads by 12 points.
Culture & sights. San Miguel de Allende and Valparaiso are level on 62.
Nightlife. San Miguel de Allende 38, Valparaiso 56: Valparaiso leads by 18 points.
Nature & outdoors. San Miguel de Allende 40, Valparaiso 60: Valparaiso leads by 20 points.
Day trips. San Miguel de Allende 77, Valparaiso 63: San Miguel de Allende leads by 14 points.
Good for families. San Miguel de Allende 32, Valparaiso 33: Valparaiso leads by 1 points.
Getting around. San Miguel de Allende 48, Valparaiso 44: San Miguel de Allende leads by 4 points.
Shopping & style. San Miguel de Allende 55, Valparaiso 30: San Miguel de Allende leads by 25 points.
Affordability. San Miguel de Allende 50, Valparaiso 60: Valparaiso leads by 10 points.
Live music & performing arts. San Miguel de Allende 40, Valparaiso 38: San Miguel de Allende leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. San Miguel de Allende 66, Valparaiso 18: San Miguel de Allende leads by 48 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: San Miguel de Allende and Valparaiso.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

San Miguel de Allende
48match

Wins on wellness and shopping with your weighting.

Valparaiso
46match

Wins on beaches and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

San Miguel de Allende in July

29 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
132 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
No seasea
13 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

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
San Miguel de AllendeValparaiso

Where the figures come from

San Miguel de Allende's temperatures are measured 54 km from the centre, at Guanajuato, Gto..

San Miguel de Allende 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.

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 Miguel de Allende: 1991-2020 normals, Guanajuato, Gto. (53.7 km from centre). Valparaiso: 2010-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Viña Del Mar / Montemar (17 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSan Miguel de AllendeValparaiso
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaSpanish
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Chilean Peso (CLP)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzCL220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC-4, UTC-3 in summer
Emergency number911Police 133/134, ambulance 131, fire 132
Elevation1,900 m21 m
Main airportGuanajuato International Airport (BJX)77 km from centre22 non-stop destinationsComodoro Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport (SCL)87 km from centre67 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureSan Miguel de AllendeValparaiso
City population69,811296,655
People per km²-6,180
Museums within 10 km217
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
Swim season, months above 21 °C-None

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow San Miguel de Allende 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. 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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.