VacationSelector
Ushuaia below snow-capped mountains, Ushuaia
UshuaiaUshuaia below snow-capped mountains
A painted funicular on the hillside, Valparaiso
ValparaisoA painted funicular on the hillside

Photos: Ushuaia by Jan Tang, Pexels License; Valparaiso by Maclemo, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Ushuaia 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 Ushuaia for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness
  • families

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

Choose Valparaiso for

  • day trips
  • culture and sights
  • nightlife

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. Ushuaia 3, Valparaiso 36: Valparaiso leads by 33 points.
Food & drink. Ushuaia 40, Valparaiso 50: Valparaiso leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. Ushuaia 22, Valparaiso 62: Valparaiso leads by 40 points.
Nightlife. Ushuaia 18, Valparaiso 56: Valparaiso leads by 38 points.
Nature & outdoors. Ushuaia 88, Valparaiso 60: Ushuaia leads by 28 points.
Day trips. Ushuaia 14, Valparaiso 63: Valparaiso leads by 49 points.
Good for families. Ushuaia 40, Valparaiso 33: Ushuaia leads by 7 points.
Getting around. Ushuaia 45, Valparaiso 44: Ushuaia leads by 1 points.
Shopping & style. Ushuaia 22, Valparaiso 30: Valparaiso leads by 8 points.
Affordability. Ushuaia 42, Valparaiso 60: Valparaiso leads by 18 points.
Live music & performing arts. Ushuaia 10, Valparaiso 38: Valparaiso leads by 28 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Ushuaia 26, Valparaiso 18: Ushuaia leads by 8 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Ushuaia
31match

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

Valparaiso
Best match
46match

Wins on day trips 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.

Ushuaia in July

4 °Cdaytime high
0 °Cnight-time low
36 mmrain in the month
2 hsunshine a day
No seasea
8 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°5°10°15°20°25°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
UshuaiaValparaiso

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. Ushuaia: 1991-2020 normals, Ushuaia Aerodrome (1 km from centre). Valparaiso: 2010-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Viña Del Mar / Montemar (17 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureUshuaiaValparaiso
Official languageSpanishSpanish
CurrencyArgentine Peso (ARS)Chilean Peso (CLP)
SocketsCI220 V, 50 HzCL220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC-3UTC-4, UTC-3 in summer
Emergency number117 or 911Police 133/134, ambulance 131, fire 132
Elevation23 m21 m
Main airportUshuaia - Malvinas Argentinas International Airport (USH)4 km from centre9 non-stop destinationsComodoro Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport (SCL)87 km from centre67 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureUshuaiaValparaiso
City population82,615296,655
People per km²3,5926,180
Museums within 10 km517
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
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 Ushuaia 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). 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. 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.