VacationSelector
The Opera House from the water, Sydney
SydneyThe Opera House from the water
A painted funicular on the hillside, Valparaiso
ValparaisoA painted funicular on the hillside

Photos: Sydney by Bernard Spragg, CC0; Valparaiso by Maclemo, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Sydney 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 Sydney for

  • beaches
  • families
  • shopping

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

Choose Valparaiso for

  • prices
  • day trips
  • 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. Sydney 95, Valparaiso 36: Sydney leads by 59 points.
Food & drink. Sydney 77, Valparaiso 50: Sydney leads by 27 points.
Culture & sights. Sydney 60, Valparaiso 62: Valparaiso leads by 2 points.
Nightlife. Sydney 60, Valparaiso 56: Sydney leads by 4 points.
Nature & outdoors. Sydney 85, Valparaiso 60: Sydney leads by 25 points.
Day trips. Sydney 50, Valparaiso 63: Valparaiso leads by 13 points.
Good for families. Sydney 75, Valparaiso 33: Sydney leads by 42 points.
Getting around. Sydney 75, Valparaiso 44: Sydney leads by 31 points.
Shopping & style. Sydney 68, Valparaiso 30: Sydney leads by 38 points.
Affordability. Sydney 22, Valparaiso 60: Valparaiso leads by 38 points.
Live music & performing arts. Sydney 73, Valparaiso 38: Sydney leads by 35 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Sydney 55, Valparaiso 18: Sydney leads by 37 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Sydney
Best match
66match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

Valparaiso
46match

Wins on prices and day trips with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Sydney in July

18 °Cdaytime high
9 °Cnight-time low
70 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
19 °Csea
10 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

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
SydneyValparaiso

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. Sydney: 1991-2020 normals, Sydney Airport (3.7 km from centre). Valparaiso: 2010-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Viña Del Mar / Montemar (17 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSydneyValparaiso
Official languageEnglishSpanish
CurrencyAustralian Dollar (AUD)Chilean Peso (CLP)
SocketsI230 V, 50 HzCL220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+10, UTC+11 in summerUTC-4, UTC-3 in summer
Emergency number000Police 133/134, ambulance 131, fire 132
Elevation6 m21 m
Main airportSydney Kingsford Smith International Airport (SYD)9 km from centre99 non-stop destinationsComodoro Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport (SCL)87 km from centre67 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureSydneyValparaiso
City population5,450,496296,655
People per km²4496,180
Museums within 10 km3817
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
Swim season, months above 21 °C6 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Sydney 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.