VacationSelector
The terrace on Cerro Santa Lucía, Santiago
SantiagoThe terrace on Cerro Santa Lucía
The Riva in front of Diocletian's Palace, Split
SplitThe Riva in front of Diocletian's Palace

Photos: Santiago by Rjcastillo, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Split by Bernard Gagnon, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Santiago or Split?

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 Santiago for

  • shopping
  • live music and the arts
  • prices

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

Choose Split for

  • beaches
  • culture and sights
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Split’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. Santiago 12, Split 75: Split leads by 63 points.
Food & drink. Santiago 60, Split 57: Santiago leads by 3 points.
Culture & sights. Santiago 52, Split 66: Split leads by 14 points.
Nightlife. Santiago 60, Split 52: Santiago leads by 8 points.
Nature & outdoors. Santiago 83, Split 77: Santiago leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Santiago 70, Split 78: Split leads by 8 points.
Good for families. Santiago 57, Split 54: Santiago leads by 3 points.
Getting around. Santiago 68, Split 67: Santiago leads by 1 points.
Shopping & style. Santiago 52, Split 32: Santiago leads by 20 points.
Affordability. Santiago 58, Split 45: Santiago leads by 13 points.
Live music & performing arts. Santiago 55, Split 37: Santiago leads by 18 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Santiago 37, Split 40: Split leads by 3 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Santiago and Split.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Santiago
55match

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

Split
57match

Wins on beaches 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.

Santiago in July

14 °Cdaytime high
4 °Cnight-time low
52 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
No seasea
10 hdaylight a day

Split in July

31 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
25 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
24 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
SantiagoSplit

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Santiago: 1991-2020 normals, Santiago Q. Normal (3.1 km from centre). Split: 1991-2020 normals, Split / Marjan (0.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSantiagoSplit
Official languageSpanishCroatian
CurrencyChilean Peso (CLP)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCL220 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-4, UTC-3 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 133/134, ambulance 131, fire 132112
Elevation575 m0 m
Main airportComodoro Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport (SCL)14 km from centre67 non-stop destinationsSplit Saint Jerome Airport (SPU)12 km from centre69 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureSantiagoSplit
City population6,257,516160,577
People per km²7,468-
Museums within 10 km5411
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km04
Swim season, months above 21 °C-4 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Santiago or Split 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). 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. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.