VacationSelector
The Parthenon on the Acropolis, Athens
AthensThe Parthenon on the Acropolis
The red cable car above Wellington, Wellington
WellingtonThe red cable car above Wellington

Photos: Athens by Ranjeet Kumar Singh, Pexels License; Wellington by lumoplank, CC0.

Athens 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 Athens for

  • day trips
  • culture and sights
  • beaches

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

Choose Wellington for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • families
  • getting around

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. Athens 70, Wellington 33: Athens leads by 37 points.
Food & drink. Athens 78, Wellington 62: Athens leads by 16 points.
Culture & sights. Athens 88, Wellington 44: Athens leads by 44 points.
Nightlife. Athens 80, Wellington 45: Athens leads by 35 points.
Nature & outdoors. Athens 64, Wellington 78: Wellington leads by 14 points.
Day trips. Athens 85, Wellington 40: Athens leads by 45 points.
Good for families. Athens 58, Wellington 62: Wellington leads by 4 points.
Getting around. Athens 66, Wellington 68: Wellington leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Athens 55, Wellington 42: Athens leads by 13 points.
Affordability. Athens 56, Wellington 33: Athens leads by 23 points.
Live music & performing arts. Athens 64, Wellington 56: Athens leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Athens 42, Wellington 30: Athens leads by 12 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Athens
Best match
67match

Wins on day trips and culture and sights with your weighting.

Wellington
49match

Wins on nature and the outdoors 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.

Athens in July

34 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
7 mmrain in the month
13 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
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

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
AthensWellington

Where the figures come from

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

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Athens: 1991-2020 normals, Athens / Athenai / Pláka (2.2 km from centre). Wellington: 1961-1990 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Wellington Aerodrome Aws (5.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAthensWellington
Official languageGreekEnglish, New Zealand Sign Language, Māori
CurrencyEuro (EUR)New Zealand Dollar (NZD)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+2, UTC+3 in summerUTC+12, UTC+13 in summer
Emergency number112111
Elevation74 m0 m
Main airportAthens Eleftherios Venizelos International Airport (ATH)20 km from centre173 non-stop destinationsWellington International Airport (WLG)5 km from centre20 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year15 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureAthensWellington
City population643,452216,200
People per km²16,499487
Museums within 10 km8812
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °C5 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Athens 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). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.