VacationSelector
Hanok houses in Bukchon, Seoul
SeoulHanok houses in Bukchon
A painted funicular on the hillside, Valparaiso
ValparaisoA painted funicular on the hillside

Photos: Seoul by 거열 박, Pexels License; Valparaiso by Maclemo, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Seoul 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 Seoul for

  • wellness
  • shopping
  • families

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

Choose Valparaiso for

  • 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. Seoul 18, Valparaiso 36: Valparaiso leads by 18 points.
Food & drink. Seoul 84, Valparaiso 50: Seoul leads by 34 points.
Culture & sights. Seoul 75, Valparaiso 62: Seoul leads by 13 points.
Nightlife. Seoul 84, Valparaiso 56: Seoul leads by 28 points.
Nature & outdoors. Seoul 75, Valparaiso 60: Seoul leads by 15 points.
Day trips. Seoul 77, Valparaiso 63: Seoul leads by 14 points.
Good for families. Seoul 80, Valparaiso 33: Seoul leads by 47 points.
Getting around. Seoul 87, Valparaiso 44: Seoul leads by 43 points.
Shopping & style. Seoul 85, Valparaiso 30: Seoul leads by 55 points.
Affordability. Seoul 50, Valparaiso 60: Valparaiso leads by 10 points.
Live music & performing arts. Seoul 63, Valparaiso 38: Seoul leads by 25 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Seoul 75, Valparaiso 18: Seoul leads by 57 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Seoul
Best match
71match

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.

Seoul in July

29 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
422 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
21 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Valparaiso in July

15 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
71 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
13 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400500JFMAMJJASOND
SeoulValparaiso

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. Seoul: 1991-2020 normals, Seoul (2.2 km from centre). Valparaiso: 2010-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Viña Del Mar / Montemar (17 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSeoulValparaiso
Official languageKorean, Korean Sign LanguageSpanish
CurrencyWon (KRW)Chilean Peso (CLP)
SocketsCF220 V, 60 HzCL220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+9UTC-4, UTC-3 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 112, ambulance 119, fire 119Police 133/134, ambulance 131, fire 132
Elevation38 m21 m
Main airportIncheon International Airport (ICN)49 km from centre162 non-stop destinationsComodoro Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport (SCL)87 km from centre67 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year18 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureSeoulValparaiso
City population9,668,465296,655
People per km²15,9736,180
Museums within 10 km8117
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km51
Swim season, months above 21 °C2 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Seoul 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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. 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.