VacationSelector
Skiers at the Albion base of the ski area, Alta, Utah
Alta, UtahSkiers at the Albion base of the ski area
The red cable car above Wellington, Wellington
WellingtonThe red cable car above Wellington

Photos: Alta, Utah by Sumanch, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Wellington by lumoplank, CC0.

Alta, Utah 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 Alta, Utah for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Alta, Utah’s own page.

Choose Wellington for

  • live music and the arts
  • food and drink
  • nightlife

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. Alta, Utah 3, Wellington 33: Wellington leads by 30 points.
Food & drink. Alta, Utah 15, Wellington 62: Wellington leads by 47 points.
Culture & sights. Alta, Utah 5, Wellington 44: Wellington leads by 39 points.
Nightlife. Alta, Utah 4, Wellington 45: Wellington leads by 41 points.
Nature & outdoors. Alta, Utah 90, Wellington 78: Alta, Utah leads by 12 points.
Day trips. Alta, Utah and Wellington are level on 40.
Good for families. Alta, Utah 30, Wellington 62: Wellington leads by 32 points.
Getting around. Alta, Utah 35, Wellington 68: Wellington leads by 33 points.
Shopping & style. Alta, Utah 4, Wellington 42: Wellington leads by 38 points.
Affordability. Alta, Utah 15, Wellington 33: Wellington leads by 18 points.
Live music & performing arts. Alta, Utah 3, Wellington 56: Wellington leads by 53 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Alta, Utah 35, Wellington 30: Alta, Utah leads by 5 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Alta, Utah
23match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and wellness with your weighting.

Wellington
Best match
49match

Wins on live music and the arts and food and drink with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Alta, Utah in July

22 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
27 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
15 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

-5°0°5°10°15°20°25°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
Alta, UtahWellington

Where the figures come from

Alta, Utah has no weather station within reach, so its figures come from a gridded climate model rather than a measured record, and read a broad area rather than the city itself.

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

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Alta, Utah: 1991-2020 normals, TerraClimate 4 km grid at the town, no weather station within 90 km. Wellington: 1961-1990 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Wellington Aerodrome Aws (5.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAlta, UtahWellington
Official language-English, New Zealand Sign Language, Māori
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)New Zealand Dollar (NZD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-7, UTC-6 in summerUTC+12, UTC+13 in summer
Emergency number911111
Elevation2,610 m0 m
Main airportSalt Lake City International Airport (SLC)37 km from centre108 non-stop destinationsWellington International Airport (WLG)5 km from centre20 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureAlta, UtahWellington
City population228216,200
People per km²19487
Museums within 10 km012
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C-None

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Alta, Utah or Wellington somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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. Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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.