VacationSelector
The Qasr al-Farid tomb at Hegra near AlUla, AlUla
AlUlaThe Qasr al-Farid tomb at Hegra near AlUla
The red cable car above Wellington, Wellington
WellingtonThe red cable car above Wellington

Photos: AlUla by Richard.hargas, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Wellington by lumoplank, CC0.

AlUla 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 AlUla for

  • culture and sights
  • wellness

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

Choose Wellington for

  • getting around
  • nightlife
  • food and drink

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. AlUla 3, Wellington 33: Wellington leads by 30 points.
Food & drink. AlUla 28, Wellington 62: Wellington leads by 34 points.
Culture & sights. AlUla 70, Wellington 44: AlUla leads by 26 points.
Nightlife. AlUla 5, Wellington 45: Wellington leads by 40 points.
Nature & outdoors. AlUla 72, Wellington 78: Wellington leads by 6 points.
Day trips. AlUla 20, Wellington 40: Wellington leads by 20 points.
Good for families. AlUla 35, Wellington 62: Wellington leads by 27 points.
Getting around. AlUla 15, Wellington 68: Wellington leads by 53 points.
Shopping & style. AlUla 15, Wellington 42: Wellington leads by 27 points.
Affordability. AlUla 18, Wellington 33: Wellington leads by 15 points.
Live music & performing arts. AlUla 28, Wellington 56: Wellington leads by 28 points.
Wellness & relaxation. AlUla 45, Wellington 30: AlUla leads by 15 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

AlUla
30match

Wins on culture and sights and wellness with your weighting.

Wellington
Best match
49match

Wins on getting around and nightlife with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

AlUla in July

43 °Cdaytime high
28 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
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
AlUlaWellington

Where the figures come from

AlUla 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. AlUla: 2010-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Alula / Al ‘Ulá (23.7 km from centre). Wellington: 1961-1990 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Wellington Aerodrome Aws (5.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAlUlaWellington
Official languageArabicEnglish, New Zealand Sign Language, Māori
CurrencySaudi Riyal (SAR)New Zealand Dollar (NZD)
SocketsG60 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+3UTC+12, UTC+13 in summer
Emergency number112 or 911111
Elevation692 m0 m
Main airportAl-Ula International Airport (ULH)24 km from centre8 non-stop destinationsWellington International Airport (WLG)5 km from centre20 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-12 days

By the numbers

MeasureAlUlaWellington
City population32,413216,200
People per km²-487
Museums within 10 km212
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
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 AlUla 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. 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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.