VacationSelector
The adobe New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe
Santa FeThe adobe New Mexico Museum of Art
A painted funicular on the hillside, Valparaiso
ValparaisoA painted funicular on the hillside

Photos: Santa Fe by dconvertini, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Valparaiso by Maclemo, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Santa Fe 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 Santa Fe for

  • wellness
  • shopping
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Santa Fe’s own page.

Choose Valparaiso for

  • nightlife
  • beaches
  • prices

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. Santa Fe 5, Valparaiso 36: Valparaiso leads by 31 points.
Food & drink. Santa Fe 62, Valparaiso 50: Santa Fe leads by 12 points.
Culture & sights. Santa Fe 66, Valparaiso 62: Santa Fe leads by 4 points.
Nightlife. Santa Fe 22, Valparaiso 56: Valparaiso leads by 34 points.
Nature & outdoors. Santa Fe 80, Valparaiso 60: Santa Fe leads by 20 points.
Day trips. Santa Fe 70, Valparaiso 63: Santa Fe leads by 7 points.
Good for families. Santa Fe 45, Valparaiso 33: Santa Fe leads by 12 points.
Getting around. Santa Fe 40, Valparaiso 44: Valparaiso leads by 4 points.
Shopping & style. Santa Fe 62, Valparaiso 30: Santa Fe leads by 32 points.
Affordability. Santa Fe 30, Valparaiso 60: Valparaiso leads by 30 points.
Live music & performing arts. Santa Fe 55, Valparaiso 38: Santa Fe leads by 17 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Santa Fe 55, Valparaiso 18: Santa Fe leads by 37 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Santa Fe
Best match
49match

Wins on wellness and shopping with your weighting.

Valparaiso
46match

Wins on nightlife 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.

Santa Fe in July

31 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
60 mmrain in the month
No seasea
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°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
Santa FeValparaiso

Where the figures come from

Santa Fe's station stands 199 m below the city centre, so the centre is likely a little cooler than the figures say.

Santa Fe 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. Santa Fe: 1991-2020 normals, Santa Fe / Cieneguilla (12.4 km from centre). Valparaiso: 2010-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Viña Del Mar / Montemar (17 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSanta FeValparaiso
Official language-Spanish
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Chilean Peso (CLP)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCL220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-7, UTC-6 in summerUTC-4, UTC-3 in summer
Emergency number911Police 133/134, ambulance 131, fire 132
Elevation2,134 m21 m
Main airportSanta Fe Municipal Airport (SAF)12 km from centre5 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

MeasureSanta FeValparaiso
City population87,505296,655
People per km²6456,180
Museums within 10 km1017
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
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 Santa Fe 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.