VacationSelector
A painted funicular on the hillside, Valparaiso
ValparaisoA painted funicular on the hillside
The red cable car above Wellington, Wellington
WellingtonThe red cable car above Wellington

Photos: Valparaiso by Maclemo, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Wellington by lumoplank, CC0.

Valparaiso or Wellington?

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

  • prices
  • day trips
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Wellington for

  • families
  • getting around
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Wellington’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, Wellington 33: Valparaiso leads by 3 points.
Food & drink. Valparaiso 50, Wellington 62: Wellington leads by 12 points.
Culture & sights. Valparaiso 62, Wellington 44: Valparaiso leads by 18 points.
Nightlife. Valparaiso 56, Wellington 45: Valparaiso leads by 11 points.
Nature & outdoors. Valparaiso 60, Wellington 78: Wellington leads by 18 points.
Day trips. Valparaiso 63, Wellington 40: Valparaiso leads by 23 points.
Good for families. Valparaiso 33, Wellington 62: Wellington leads by 29 points.
Getting around. Valparaiso 44, Wellington 68: Wellington leads by 24 points.
Shopping & style. Valparaiso 30, Wellington 42: Wellington leads by 12 points.
Affordability. Valparaiso 60, Wellington 33: Valparaiso leads by 27 points.
Live music & performing arts. Valparaiso 38, Wellington 56: Wellington leads by 18 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Valparaiso 18, Wellington 30: Wellington leads by 12 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Valparaiso
46match

Wins on prices and day trips with your weighting.

Wellington
Best match
49match

Wins on families and getting around 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

Wellington in July

12 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
111 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
12 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°5°10°15°20°25°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
ValparaisoWellington

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.

Wellington's sunshine is measured 47 km from the centre, at Paraparaumu Aerodrome.

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). Wellington: 1961-1990 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Wellington Aerodrome Aws (5.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureValparaisoWellington
Official languageSpanishEnglish, New Zealand Sign Language, Māori
CurrencyChilean Peso (CLP)New Zealand Dollar (NZD)
SocketsCL220 V, 50 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-4, UTC-3 in summerUTC+12, UTC+13 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 133/134, ambulance 131, fire 132111
Elevation21 m0 m
Main airportComodoro Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport (SCL)87 km from centre67 non-stop destinationsWellington International Airport (WLG)5 km from centre20 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureValparaisoWellington
City population296,655216,200
People per km²6,180487
Museums within 10 km1712
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 Wellington 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.