VacationSelector
The Teatro Colón, Buenos Aires
Buenos AiresThe Teatro Colón
The red cable car above Wellington, Wellington
WellingtonThe red cable car above Wellington

Photos: Buenos Aires by Bernard Gagnon, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Wellington by lumoplank, CC0.

Buenos Aires 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 Buenos Aires for

  • nightlife
  • culture and sights
  • prices

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

Choose Wellington for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • beaches
  • families

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. Buenos Aires 7, Wellington 33: Wellington leads by 26 points.
Food & drink. Buenos Aires 75, Wellington 62: Buenos Aires leads by 13 points.
Culture & sights. Buenos Aires 71, Wellington 44: Buenos Aires leads by 27 points.
Nightlife. Buenos Aires 95, Wellington 45: Buenos Aires leads by 50 points.
Nature & outdoors. Buenos Aires 38, Wellington 78: Wellington leads by 40 points.
Day trips. Buenos Aires 60, Wellington 40: Buenos Aires leads by 20 points.
Good for families. Buenos Aires 52, Wellington 62: Wellington leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Buenos Aires 62, Wellington 68: Wellington leads by 6 points.
Shopping & style. Buenos Aires 60, Wellington 42: Buenos Aires leads by 18 points.
Affordability. Buenos Aires 55, Wellington 33: Buenos Aires leads by 22 points.
Live music & performing arts. Buenos Aires 75, Wellington 56: Buenos Aires leads by 19 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Buenos Aires 28, Wellington 30: Wellington leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Buenos Aires and Wellington.

Your match

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

Buenos Aires
Best match
57match

Wins on nightlife and culture and sights 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.

Buenos Aires in July

15 °Cdaytime high
8 °Cnight-time low
50 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
13 °Csea
10 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

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
Buenos AiresWellington

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. Buenos Aires: 1991-2020 normals, Aeroparque Bs. As. Aerodrome (4.9 km from centre). Wellington: 1961-1990 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Wellington Aerodrome Aws (5.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBuenos AiresWellington
Official languageSpanishEnglish, New Zealand Sign Language, Māori
CurrencyArgentine Peso (ARS)New Zealand Dollar (NZD)
SocketsCI220 V, 50 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC-3UTC+12, UTC+13 in summer
Emergency number117 or 911111
Elevation25 m0 m
Main airportEzeiza International Airport - Ministro Pistarini (EZE)28 km from centre48 non-stop destinationsWellington International Airport (WLG)5 km from centre20 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureBuenos AiresWellington
City population3,121,707216,200
People per km²15,355487
Museums within 10 km7612
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C4 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

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