VacationSelector
Camelback Mountain above the city, Scottsdale
ScottsdaleCamelback Mountain above the city
A painted funicular on the hillside, Valparaiso
ValparaisoA painted funicular on the hillside

Photos: Scottsdale by Visitor7, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Valparaiso by Maclemo, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Scottsdale 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 Scottsdale for

  • wellness
  • shopping
  • families

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

Choose Valparaiso for

  • beaches
  • prices
  • 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. Scottsdale 8, Valparaiso 36: Valparaiso leads by 28 points.
Food & drink. Scottsdale 46, Valparaiso 50: Valparaiso leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. Scottsdale 38, Valparaiso 62: Valparaiso leads by 24 points.
Nightlife. Scottsdale 52, Valparaiso 56: Valparaiso leads by 4 points.
Nature & outdoors. Scottsdale 68, Valparaiso 60: Scottsdale leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Scottsdale 50, Valparaiso 63: Valparaiso leads by 13 points.
Good for families. Scottsdale 60, Valparaiso 33: Scottsdale leads by 27 points.
Getting around. Scottsdale 20, Valparaiso 44: Valparaiso leads by 24 points.
Shopping & style. Scottsdale 60, Valparaiso 30: Scottsdale leads by 30 points.
Affordability. Scottsdale 32, Valparaiso 60: Valparaiso leads by 28 points.
Live music & performing arts. Scottsdale 40, Valparaiso 38: Scottsdale leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Scottsdale 72, Valparaiso 18: Scottsdale leads by 54 points.
0255075100

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

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

Scottsdale
46match

Wins on wellness and shopping with your weighting.

Valparaiso
46match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Scottsdale in July

41 °Cdaytime high
29 °Cnight-time low
23 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°50°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
ScottsdaleValparaiso

Where the figures come from

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. Scottsdale: 1991-2020 normals, Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport (13.3 km from centre). Valparaiso: 2010-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Viña Del Mar / Montemar (17 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureScottsdaleValparaiso
Official language-Spanish
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Chilean Peso (CLP)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCL220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-7UTC-4, UTC-3 in summer
Emergency number911Police 133/134, ambulance 131, fire 132
Elevation380 m21 m
Main airportPhoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX)10 km from centre148 non-stop destinationsComodoro Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport (SCL)87 km from centre67 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureScottsdaleValparaiso
City population241,361296,655
People per km²-6,180
Museums within 10 km1017
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
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 Scottsdale 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.