VacationSelector
A painted funicular on the hillside, Valparaiso
ValparaisoA painted funicular on the hillside
The Riverwalk and the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge, Wilmington
WilmingtonThe Riverwalk and the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge

Photos: Valparaiso by Maclemo, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Wilmington by Unexpected Snacks, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Valparaiso or Wilmington?

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

  • culture and sights
  • day trips
  • prices

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

Choose Wilmington for

  • beaches
  • families
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Wilmington’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, Wilmington 73: Wilmington leads by 37 points.
Food & drink. Valparaiso 50, Wilmington 48: Valparaiso leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Valparaiso 62, Wilmington 40: Valparaiso leads by 22 points.
Nightlife. Valparaiso 56, Wilmington 40: Valparaiso leads by 16 points.
Nature & outdoors. Valparaiso 60, Wilmington 58: Valparaiso leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Valparaiso 63, Wilmington 45: Valparaiso leads by 18 points.
Good for families. Valparaiso 33, Wilmington 62: Wilmington leads by 29 points.
Getting around. Valparaiso 44, Wilmington 28: Valparaiso leads by 16 points.
Shopping & style. Valparaiso 30, Wilmington 33: Wilmington leads by 3 points.
Affordability. Valparaiso 60, Wilmington 42: Valparaiso leads by 18 points.
Live music & performing arts. Valparaiso 38, Wilmington 40: Wilmington leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Valparaiso 18, Wilmington 33: Wilmington leads by 15 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Valparaiso and Wilmington.

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 culture and sights and day trips with your weighting.

Wilmington
45match

Wins on beaches 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

Wilmington in July

32 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
174 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
27 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
ValparaisoWilmington

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. Valparaiso: 2010-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Viña Del Mar / Montemar (17 km from centre). Wilmington: 1991-2020 normals, Wilmington / The Palms Mobile Home Park (5.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureValparaisoWilmington
Official languageSpanish-
CurrencyChilean Peso (CLP)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCL220 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-4, UTC-3 in summerUTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 133/134, ambulance 131, fire 132911
Elevation21 m9 m
Main airportComodoro Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport (SCL)87 km from centre67 non-stop destinationsWilmington International Airport (ILM)5 km from centre25 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureValparaisoWilmington
City population296,655115,451
People per km²6,180839
Museums within 10 km172
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone6 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Valparaiso or Wilmington 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.