VacationSelector
Pulteney Bridge and the weir on the Avon, Bath
BathPulteney Bridge and the weir on the Avon
The red cable car above Wellington, Wellington
WellingtonThe red cable car above Wellington

Photos: Bath by Lucas Carlini, Pexels License; Wellington by lumoplank, CC0.

Bath 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 Bath for

  • wellness
  • day trips
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Wellington for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • 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. Bath 10, Wellington 33: Wellington leads by 23 points.
Food & drink. Bath 44, Wellington 62: Wellington leads by 18 points.
Culture & sights. Bath 68, Wellington 44: Bath leads by 24 points.
Nightlife. Bath 30, Wellington 45: Wellington leads by 15 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bath 58, Wellington 78: Wellington leads by 20 points.
Day trips. Bath 80, Wellington 40: Bath leads by 40 points.
Good for families. Bath 50, Wellington 62: Wellington leads by 12 points.
Getting around. Bath 72, Wellington 68: Bath leads by 4 points.
Shopping & style. Bath 54, Wellington 42: Bath leads by 12 points.
Affordability. Bath 27, Wellington 33: Wellington leads by 6 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bath 44, Wellington 56: Wellington leads by 12 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bath 78, Wellington 30: Bath leads by 48 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Bath
51match

Wins on wellness and day trips with your weighting.

Wellington
49match

Wins on beaches and 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.

Bath in July

21 °Cdaytime high
12 °Cnight-time low
62 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
16 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°5°10°15°20°25°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
BathWellington

Where the figures come from

Bath's temperatures are measured 29 km from the centre, at Lyneham.

Bath 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. Bath: 1991-2020 normals, Lyneham (29.2 km from centre). Wellington: 1961-1990 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Wellington Aerodrome Aws (5.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBathWellington
Official languageEnglishEnglish, New Zealand Sign Language, Māori
CurrencyPound Sterling (GBP)New Zealand Dollar (NZD)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC+12, UTC+13 in summer
Emergency number112 or 999111
Elevation132 m0 m
Main airportBristol Airport (BRS)25 km from centre117 non-stop destinationsWellington International Airport (WLG)5 km from centre20 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year8 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureBathWellington
City population94,092216,200
People per km²3,245487
Museums within 10 km1712
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °CNoneNone

Where else could you go?

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