Valparaiso Travel Guide, Chile

The city of Valparaíso (famous by the shorter version Valpo amongst the locals) is one of the important cities for country of Chile. The importance of Valparaíso increases due to the huge port of the city. The city of Valparaíso is located around 120 kilometers from the capital of Chile, Santiago de Chile. It is also the capital for Valparaíso Region which is located in central part of Chile.

As pointed above, the capital for Chile is Santiago de Chile but the office for National Congress of Chile is located in Valparaíso itself. This has highly increased the political importance of Valparaíso.

The city of Valparaíso is famous for multiple hills surrounding the city, the beautiful Pacific Ocean, and various streets made of cobble stone. The rich culture and the architecture of Valparaíso has immensely helped tourism industry of Valparaíso. The city of Valparaíso is also important when it comes to education. There are around 9 government funded national universities in the city of Valparaíso which attract students from all over Chile.

The city of Valparaíso bags the 6th spot when it comes to most populated cities of Chile. The population of Chile is around 260000 inhabitants. Now comes the Great Valparaíso (which is actually the metropolitan area for Valparaíso that includes the city of Vina del Mar) which has the population of around 900000 inhabitants. This makes it the 2nd largest metropolitan area in Chile.

The city of Valparaíso experiences moderate climate throughout the year. The average annual maximum temperature is around 18 degree Celsius while the average annual minimum temperature is around 10 degree Celsius.

The city of Valparaíso is also famous for housing the veteran Stock Exchange which is considered to be the oldest amongst all in complete Latin America. The port of Valparaíso has helped the cruise industry to grow exponentially with around 50 cruise machines flowing on its ocean throughout the year. The port is also used for importing and exporting fresh fruit, quality wine, and copper.

The city of Valparaíso was also declared as the World Heritage site by UNESCO due to the cultural importance of the city. This was another reason why the city of Valparaíso experienced huge inflow of tourists (local as well as foreign) into the city after the year 2003.

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