VacationSelector
The terrace on Cerro Santa Lucía, Santiago
SantiagoThe terrace on Cerro Santa Lucía
Valletta from the water, Valletta
VallettaValletta from the water

Photos: Santiago by Rjcastillo, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Valletta by Pho Tomass, Pexels License.

Santiago or Valletta?

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
  • nightlife
  • shopping

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

Choose Valletta for

  • beaches
  • culture and sights
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Valletta’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, Valletta 68: Valletta leads by 56 points.
Food & drink. Santiago 60, Valletta 55: Santiago leads by 5 points.
Culture & sights. Santiago 52, Valletta 76: Valletta leads by 24 points.
Nightlife. Santiago 60, Valletta 46: Santiago leads by 14 points.
Nature & outdoors. Santiago 83, Valletta 56: Santiago leads by 27 points.
Day trips. Santiago 70, Valletta 76: Valletta leads by 6 points.
Good for families. Santiago 57, Valletta 58: Valletta leads by 1 points.
Getting around. Santiago 68, Valletta 62: Santiago leads by 6 points.
Shopping & style. Santiago 52, Valletta 38: Santiago leads by 14 points.
Affordability. Santiago 58, Valletta 50: Santiago leads by 8 points.
Live music & performing arts. Santiago 55, Valletta 44: Santiago leads by 11 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Santiago 37, Valletta 32: Santiago leads by 5 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Santiago and Valletta.

Your match

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

Too close to call, level with your weighting

Santiago
55match

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

Valletta
55match

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

Valletta in July

32 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
SantiagoValletta

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Santiago: 1991-2020 normals, Santiago Q. Normal (3.1 km from centre). Valletta: 1991-2020 normals, Luqa (5.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSantiagoValletta
Official languageSpanishEnglish, Maltese
CurrencyChilean Peso (CLP)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCL220 V, 50 HzG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-4, UTC-3 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 133/134, ambulance 131, fire 132112
Elevation575 m56 m
Main airportComodoro Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport (SCL)14 km from centre67 non-stop destinationsMalta International Airport (MLA)6 km from centre113 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureSantiagoValletta
City population6,257,5165,197
People per km²7,4686,496
Museums within 10 km5416
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km03
Swim season, months above 21 °C-6 months

Where else could you go?

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