VacationSelector
The CEC Palace on Calea Victoriei, Bucharest
BucharestThe CEC Palace on Calea Victoriei
The red cable car above Wellington, Wellington
WellingtonThe red cable car above Wellington

Photos: Bucharest by Jorge Láscar, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Wellington by lumoplank, CC0.

Bucharest 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 Bucharest for

  • prices
  • nightlife
  • wellness

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

Choose Wellington for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • beaches
  • 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. Bucharest 8, Wellington 33: Wellington leads by 25 points.
Food & drink. Bucharest 55, Wellington 62: Wellington leads by 7 points.
Culture & sights. Bucharest 58, Wellington 44: Bucharest leads by 14 points.
Nightlife. Bucharest 70, Wellington 45: Bucharest leads by 25 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bucharest 45, Wellington 78: Wellington leads by 33 points.
Day trips. Bucharest 52, Wellington 40: Bucharest leads by 12 points.
Good for families. Bucharest 52, Wellington 62: Wellington leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Bucharest 52, Wellington 68: Wellington leads by 16 points.
Shopping & style. Bucharest 45, Wellington 42: Bucharest leads by 3 points.
Affordability. Bucharest 70, Wellington 33: Bucharest leads by 37 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bucharest 60, Wellington 56: Bucharest leads by 4 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bucharest 47, Wellington 30: Bucharest leads by 17 points.
0255075100

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

Bucharest
51match

Wins on prices and nightlife with your weighting.

Wellington
49match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and beaches with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Bucharest in July

30 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
68 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
No seasea
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
BucharestWellington

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. Bucharest: 1991-2020 normals, Bucuresti / Imh (10 km from centre). Wellington: 1961-1990 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Wellington Aerodrome Aws (5.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBucharestWellington
Official languageRomanianEnglish, New Zealand Sign Language, Māori
CurrencyRomanian Leu (RON)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
Elevation70 m0 m
Main airportBucharest Henri Coandă International Airport (OTP)18 km from centre121 non-stop destinationsWellington International Airport (WLG)5 km from centre20 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year17 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureBucharestWellington
City population1,716,961216,200
People per km²7,597487
Museums within 10 km4112
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C-None

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Bucharest 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. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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.