VacationSelector
The domes and minarets of the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, Abu Dhabi
Abu DhabiThe domes and minarets of the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque
The red cable car above Wellington, Wellington
WellingtonThe red cable car above Wellington

Photos: Abu Dhabi by Jeffry Surianto, Pexels License; Wellington by lumoplank, CC0.

Abu Dhabi 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 Abu Dhabi for

  • beaches
  • culture and sights
  • families

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

Choose Wellington for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • getting around
  • live music and the arts

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. Abu Dhabi 78, Wellington 33: Abu Dhabi leads by 45 points.
Food & drink. Abu Dhabi 55, Wellington 62: Wellington leads by 7 points.
Culture & sights. Abu Dhabi 64, Wellington 44: Abu Dhabi leads by 20 points.
Nightlife. Abu Dhabi 34, Wellington 45: Wellington leads by 11 points.
Nature & outdoors. Abu Dhabi 28, Wellington 78: Wellington leads by 50 points.
Day trips. Abu Dhabi 45, Wellington 40: Abu Dhabi leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Abu Dhabi 82, Wellington 62: Abu Dhabi leads by 20 points.
Getting around. Abu Dhabi 24, Wellington 68: Wellington leads by 44 points.
Shopping & style. Abu Dhabi 50, Wellington 42: Abu Dhabi leads by 8 points.
Affordability. Abu Dhabi 38, Wellington 33: Abu Dhabi leads by 5 points.
Live music & performing arts. Abu Dhabi 32, Wellington 56: Wellington leads by 24 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Abu Dhabi 46, Wellington 30: Abu Dhabi leads by 16 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Abu Dhabi
48match

Wins on beaches and culture and sights with your weighting.

Wellington
49match

Wins on nature and the outdoors 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.

Abu Dhabi in July

43 °Cdaytime high
30 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
33 °Csea
14 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°10°20°30°40°50°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
Abu DhabiWellington

Where the figures come from

Abu Dhabi's temperatures are measured 26 km from the centre, at Abu Dhabi International Airport.

Abu Dhabi 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. Abu Dhabi: 1991-2020 normals, Abu Dhabi International Airport (25.7 km from centre). Wellington: 1961-1990 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Wellington Aerodrome Aws (5.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAbu DhabiWellington
Official languageArabicEnglish, New Zealand Sign Language, Māori
CurrencyUAE Dirham (AED)New Zealand Dollar (NZD)
SocketsCG220 V, 50 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+4UTC+12, UTC+13 in summer
Emergency number112111
Elevation14 m0 m
Main airportZayed International Airport (AUH)26 km from centre147 non-stop destinationsWellington International Airport (WLG)5 km from centre20 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-12 days

By the numbers

MeasureAbu DhabiWellington
City population1,570,000216,200
People per km²1,615487
Museums within 10 km312
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C11 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Abu Dhabi 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). 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. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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.