VacationSelector
Titanic Belfast, Belfast
BelfastTitanic Belfast
The red cable car above Wellington, Wellington
WellingtonThe red cable car above Wellington

Photos: Belfast by Nico Kaiser, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Wellington by lumoplank, CC0.

Belfast 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 Belfast for

  • day trips
  • prices
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Wellington for

  • beaches
  • food and drink
  • 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. Belfast 20, Wellington 33: Wellington leads by 13 points.
Food & drink. Belfast 50, Wellington 62: Wellington leads by 12 points.
Culture & sights. Belfast 55, Wellington 44: Belfast leads by 11 points.
Nightlife. Belfast 50, Wellington 45: Belfast leads by 5 points.
Nature & outdoors. Belfast 74, Wellington 78: Wellington leads by 4 points.
Day trips. Belfast 66, Wellington 40: Belfast leads by 26 points.
Good for families. Belfast 58, Wellington 62: Wellington leads by 4 points.
Getting around. Belfast 62, Wellington 68: Wellington leads by 6 points.
Shopping & style. Belfast 45, Wellington 42: Belfast leads by 3 points.
Affordability. Belfast 48, Wellington 33: Belfast leads by 15 points.
Live music & performing arts. Belfast 55, Wellington 56: Wellington leads by 1 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Belfast 25, Wellington 30: Wellington leads by 5 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Belfast 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

Belfast
51match

Wins on day trips and prices with your weighting.

Wellington
49match

Wins on beaches 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.

Belfast in July

19 °Cdaytime high
12 °Cnight-time low
74 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
12 °Csea
17 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
BelfastWellington

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. Belfast: 1991-2020 normals, Belfast / Aldergrove Airport (19.4 km from centre). Wellington: 1961-1990 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Wellington Aerodrome Aws (5.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBelfastWellington
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
Elevation3 m0 m
Main airportGeorge Best Belfast City Airport (BHD)4 km from centre25 non-stop destinationsWellington International Airport (WLG)5 km from centre20 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureBelfastWellington
City population345,006216,200
People per km²3,000487
Museums within 10 km812
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °CNoneNone

Where else could you go?

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