VacationSelector
The terrace on Cerro Santa Lucía, Santiago
SantiagoThe terrace on Cerro Santa Lucía
The City of Arts and Sciences, Valencia
ValenciaThe City of Arts and Sciences

Photos: Santiago by Rjcastillo, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Valencia by Francesco Ungaro, Pexels License.

Santiago or Valencia?

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

  • nature and the outdoors
  • prices

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

Choose Valencia for

  • beaches
  • families
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Valencia’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, Valencia 78: Valencia leads by 66 points.
Food & drink. Santiago 60, Valencia 74: Valencia leads by 14 points.
Culture & sights. Santiago 52, Valencia 68: Valencia leads by 16 points.
Nightlife. Santiago 60, Valencia 66: Valencia leads by 6 points.
Nature & outdoors. Santiago 83, Valencia 60: Santiago leads by 23 points.
Day trips. Santiago and Valencia are level on 70.
Good for families. Santiago 57, Valencia 75: Valencia leads by 18 points.
Getting around. Santiago 68, Valencia 76: Valencia leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. Santiago 52, Valencia 57: Valencia leads by 5 points.
Affordability. Santiago 58, Valencia 57: Santiago leads by 1 points.
Live music & performing arts. Santiago and Valencia are level on 55.
Wellness & relaxation. Santiago 37, Valencia 42: Valencia leads by 5 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Santiago and Valencia.

Your match

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

Santiago
55match

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

Valencia
Best match
65match

Wins on beaches and families 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

Valencia in July

30 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
7 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
SantiagoValencia

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Santiago: 1991-2020 normals, Santiago Q. Normal (3.1 km from centre). Valencia: 1991-2020 normals, Valencia (1.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSantiagoValencia
Official languageSpanishSpanish
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 m15 m
Main airportComodoro Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport (SCL)14 km from centre67 non-stop destinationsValencia Airport (VLC)9 km from centre109 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureSantiagoValencia
City population6,257,516840,792
People per km²7,4686,242
Museums within 10 km5445
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
Swim season, months above 21 °C-5 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Santiago or Valencia 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.