VacationSelector
The Sagrada Família, Barcelona
BarcelonaThe Sagrada Família
The red cable car above Wellington, Wellington
WellingtonThe red cable car above Wellington

Photos: Barcelona by Canaan, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Wellington by lumoplank, CC0.

Barcelona 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 Barcelona for

  • beaches
  • culture and sights
  • day trips

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

Choose Wellington for

  • nature and the outdoors

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. Barcelona 75, Wellington 33: Barcelona leads by 42 points.
Food & drink. Barcelona 82, Wellington 62: Barcelona leads by 20 points.
Culture & sights. Barcelona 86, Wellington 44: Barcelona leads by 42 points.
Nightlife. Barcelona 82, Wellington 45: Barcelona leads by 37 points.
Nature & outdoors. Barcelona 72, Wellington 78: Wellington leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Barcelona 80, Wellington 40: Barcelona leads by 40 points.
Good for families. Barcelona 76, Wellington 62: Barcelona leads by 14 points.
Getting around. Barcelona 80, Wellington 68: Barcelona leads by 12 points.
Shopping & style. Barcelona 75, Wellington 42: Barcelona leads by 33 points.
Affordability. Barcelona 44, Wellington 33: Barcelona leads by 11 points.
Live music & performing arts. Barcelona 70, Wellington 56: Barcelona leads by 14 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Barcelona 38, Wellington 30: Barcelona leads by 8 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Barcelona
Best match
72match

Wins on beaches and culture and sights with your weighting.

Wellington
49match

Wins on nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Barcelona in July

28 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
27 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
24 °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°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
BarcelonaWellington

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. Barcelona: 1991-2020 normals, Barcelona / Aeropuerto (14.4 km from centre). Wellington: 1961-1990 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Wellington Aerodrome Aws (5.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBarcelonaWellington
Official languageSpanishEnglish, New Zealand Sign Language, Māori
CurrencyEuro (EUR)New Zealand Dollar (NZD)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+12, UTC+13 in summer
Emergency number112111
Elevation9 m0 m
Main airportJosep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat Airport (BCN)13 km from centre235 non-stop destinationsWellington International Airport (WLG)5 km from centre20 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureBarcelonaWellington
City population1,731,649216,200
People per km²17,094487
Museums within 10 km9512
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km30
Swim season, months above 21 °C3 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Barcelona 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.