VacationSelector
The old Tampa Bay Hotel across the river, Tampa
TampaThe old Tampa Bay Hotel across the river
A painted funicular on the hillside, Valparaiso
ValparaisoA painted funicular on the hillside

Photos: Tampa by Ken Lund, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Valparaiso by Maclemo, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Tampa 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 Tampa for

  • families
  • beaches
  • wellness

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

Choose Valparaiso for

  • getting around
  • culture and sights
  • 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. Tampa 70, Valparaiso 36: Tampa leads by 34 points.
Food & drink. Tampa 57, Valparaiso 50: Tampa leads by 7 points.
Culture & sights. Tampa 42, Valparaiso 62: Valparaiso leads by 20 points.
Nightlife. Tampa 52, Valparaiso 56: Valparaiso leads by 4 points.
Nature & outdoors. Tampa 55, Valparaiso 60: Valparaiso leads by 5 points.
Day trips. Tampa 54, Valparaiso 63: Valparaiso leads by 9 points.
Good for families. Tampa 78, Valparaiso 33: Tampa leads by 45 points.
Getting around. Tampa 22, Valparaiso 44: Valparaiso leads by 22 points.
Shopping & style. Tampa 40, Valparaiso 30: Tampa leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Tampa 40, Valparaiso 60: Valparaiso leads by 20 points.
Live music & performing arts. Tampa 47, Valparaiso 38: Tampa leads by 9 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Tampa 30, Valparaiso 18: Tampa leads by 12 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Tampa and Valparaiso.

Your match

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

Tampa
Best match
49match

Wins on families and beaches with your weighting.

Valparaiso
46match

Wins on getting around 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.

Tampa in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
197 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
30 °Csea
14 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°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
TampaValparaiso

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. Tampa: 1991-2020 normals, Tampa International Airport (7.6 km from centre). Valparaiso: 2010-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Viña Del Mar / Montemar (17 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureTampaValparaiso
Official language-Spanish
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Chilean Peso (CLP)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCL220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC-4, UTC-3 in summer
Emergency number911Police 133/134, ambulance 131, fire 132
Elevation30 m21 m
Main airportTampa International Airport (TPA)8 km from centre101 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

MeasureTampaValparaiso
City population384,959296,655
People per km²8486,180
Museums within 10 km617
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C8 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

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