VacationSelector
The beach with its parasols and the boardwalk, Bethany Beach
Bethany BeachThe beach with its parasols and the boardwalk
The red cable car above Wellington, Wellington
WellingtonThe red cable car above Wellington

Photos: Bethany Beach by Doug Olson, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Wellington by lumoplank, CC0.

Bethany Beach 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 Bethany Beach for

  • beaches
  • day trips
  • families

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

Choose Wellington for

  • live music and the arts
  • getting around
  • culture and sights

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. Bethany Beach 72, Wellington 33: Bethany Beach leads by 39 points.
Food & drink. Bethany Beach 35, Wellington 62: Wellington leads by 27 points.
Culture & sights. Bethany Beach 10, Wellington 44: Wellington leads by 34 points.
Nightlife. Bethany Beach 12, Wellington 45: Wellington leads by 33 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bethany Beach 48, Wellington 78: Wellington leads by 30 points.
Day trips. Bethany Beach 45, Wellington 40: Bethany Beach leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Bethany Beach 66, Wellington 62: Bethany Beach leads by 4 points.
Getting around. Bethany Beach 33, Wellington 68: Wellington leads by 35 points.
Shopping & style. Bethany Beach 28, Wellington 42: Wellington leads by 14 points.
Affordability. Bethany Beach 30, Wellington 33: Wellington leads by 3 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bethany Beach 14, Wellington 56: Wellington leads by 42 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bethany Beach 33, Wellington 30: Bethany Beach leads by 3 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Bethany Beach
36match

Wins on beaches and day trips with your weighting.

Wellington
Best match
49match

Wins on live music and the arts and getting around with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Bethany Beach in July

31 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
95 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
23 °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
Bethany BeachWellington

Where the figures come from

Bethany Beach's temperatures are measured 45 km from the centre, at Salisbury / Quail Ridge.

Bethany Beach 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. Bethany Beach: 1991-2020 normals, Salisbury / Quail Ridge (44.9 km from centre). Wellington: 1961-1990 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Wellington Aerodrome Aws (5.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBethany BeachWellington
Official language-English, New Zealand Sign Language, Māori
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)New Zealand Dollar (NZD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC+12, UTC+13 in summer
Emergency number911111
Elevation3 m0 m
Main airportSalisbury Ocean City Wicomico Regional Airport (SBY)45 km from centre4 non-stop destinationsWellington International Airport (WLG)5 km from centre20 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureBethany BeachWellington
City population954216,200
People per km²318487
Museums within 10 km012
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
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 Bethany Beach 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.