VacationSelector
La Concha beach and Monte Urgull, San Sebastian
San SebastianLa Concha beach and Monte Urgull
A painted funicular on the hillside, Valparaiso
ValparaisoA painted funicular on the hillside

Photos: San Sebastian by Guérin Nicolas, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Valparaiso by Maclemo, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

San Sebastian 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 Sebastian for

  • food and drink
  • getting around
  • families

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

Choose Valparaiso for

  • prices
  • nightlife
  • culture and sights

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 Sebastian 68, Valparaiso 36: San Sebastian leads by 32 points.
Food & drink. San Sebastian 88, Valparaiso 50: San Sebastian leads by 38 points.
Culture & sights. San Sebastian 52, Valparaiso 62: Valparaiso leads by 10 points.
Nightlife. San Sebastian 44, Valparaiso 56: Valparaiso leads by 12 points.
Nature & outdoors. San Sebastian 72, Valparaiso 60: San Sebastian leads by 12 points.
Day trips. San Sebastian 80, Valparaiso 63: San Sebastian leads by 17 points.
Good for families. San Sebastian 66, Valparaiso 33: San Sebastian leads by 33 points.
Getting around. San Sebastian 80, Valparaiso 44: San Sebastian leads by 36 points.
Shopping & style. San Sebastian 40, Valparaiso 30: San Sebastian leads by 10 points.
Affordability. San Sebastian 32, Valparaiso 60: Valparaiso leads by 28 points.
Live music & performing arts. San Sebastian 45, Valparaiso 38: San Sebastian leads by 7 points.
Wellness & relaxation. San Sebastian 50, Valparaiso 18: San Sebastian leads by 32 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: San Sebastian and Valparaiso.

Your match

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

San Sebastian
Best match
60match

Wins on food and drink and getting around with your weighting.

Valparaiso
46match

Wins on prices and nightlife with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

San Sebastian in July

22 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
92 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
21 °Csea
15 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°5°10°15°20°25°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
San SebastianValparaiso

Where the figures come from

San Sebastian's station stands 252 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer than the figures say.

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 Sebastian: 1991-2020 normals, San Sebastian / Igueldo (6.1 km from centre). Valparaiso: 2010-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Viña Del Mar / Montemar (17 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSan SebastianValparaiso
Official languageSpanishSpanish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Chilean Peso (CLP)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzCL220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-4, UTC-3 in summer
Emergency number112Police 133/134, ambulance 131, fire 132
Elevation6 m21 m
Main airportSan Sebastián Airport (EAS)16 km from centre11 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 SebastianValparaiso
City population189,866296,655
People per km²3,1186,180
Museums within 10 km1417
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km31
Swim season, months above 21 °C2 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow San Sebastian 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). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates.

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.