VacationSelector
A painted funicular on the hillside, Valparaiso
ValparaisoA painted funicular on the hillside
The British Columbia Parliament Buildings, Victoria
VictoriaThe British Columbia Parliament Buildings

Photos: Valparaiso by Maclemo, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Victoria by Guilice, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Valparaiso or Victoria?

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 Valparaiso for

  • nightlife
  • prices
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Victoria for

  • wellness
  • families
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Victoria’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. Valparaiso 36, Victoria 28: Valparaiso leads by 8 points.
Food & drink. Valparaiso and Victoria are level on 50.
Culture & sights. Valparaiso 62, Victoria 42: Valparaiso leads by 20 points.
Nightlife. Valparaiso 56, Victoria 30: Valparaiso leads by 26 points.
Nature & outdoors. Valparaiso 60, Victoria 77: Victoria leads by 17 points.
Day trips. Valparaiso 63, Victoria 54: Valparaiso leads by 9 points.
Good for families. Valparaiso 33, Victoria 62: Victoria leads by 29 points.
Getting around. Valparaiso 44, Victoria 60: Victoria leads by 16 points.
Shopping & style. Valparaiso 30, Victoria 40: Victoria leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Valparaiso 60, Victoria 34: Valparaiso leads by 26 points.
Live music & performing arts. Valparaiso 38, Victoria 40: Victoria leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Valparaiso 18, Victoria 48: Victoria leads by 30 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Valparaiso
46match

Wins on nightlife and prices with your weighting.

Victoria
47match

Wins on wellness and families with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

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

Victoria in July

21 °Cdaytime high
12 °Cnight-time low
11 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
12 °Csea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°5°10°15°20°25°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
ValparaisoVictoria

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.

Victoria's sunshine is measured 87 km from the centre, at Vancouver International Airport.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Valparaiso: 2010-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Viña Del Mar / Montemar (17 km from centre). Victoria: 1991-2020 normals, Victoria Gonzales CS (3.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureValparaisoVictoria
Official languageSpanishFrench, English
CurrencyChilean Peso (CLP)Canadian Dollar (CAD)
SocketsCL220 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-4, UTC-3 in summerUTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 133/134, ambulance 131, fire 132911
Elevation21 m23 m
Main airportComodoro Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport (SCL)87 km from centre67 non-stop destinationsVictoria International Airport (YYJ)25 km from centre16 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureValparaisoVictoria
City population296,65591,867
People per km²6,1804,711
Museums within 10 km176
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °CNoneNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Valparaiso or Victoria 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). 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. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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.