VacationSelector
Haedong Yonggungsa temple on the rocks by the sea, Busan
BusanHaedong Yonggungsa temple on the rocks by the sea
The red cable car above Wellington, Wellington
WellingtonThe red cable car above Wellington

Photos: Busan by Andrea De Santis, Pexels License; Wellington by lumoplank, CC0.

Busan 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 Busan for

  • wellness
  • beaches
  • day trips

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

Choose Wellington for

  • live music and the arts
  • nature and the outdoors

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. Busan 68, Wellington 33: Busan leads by 35 points.
Food & drink. Busan 72, Wellington 62: Busan leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. Busan 52, Wellington 44: Busan leads by 8 points.
Nightlife. Busan 60, Wellington 45: Busan leads by 15 points.
Nature & outdoors. Busan 74, Wellington 78: Wellington leads by 4 points.
Day trips. Busan 74, Wellington 40: Busan leads by 34 points.
Good for families. Busan 70, Wellington 62: Busan leads by 8 points.
Getting around. Busan and Wellington are level on 68.
Shopping & style. Busan 60, Wellington 42: Busan leads by 18 points.
Affordability. Busan 56, Wellington 33: Busan leads by 23 points.
Live music & performing arts. Busan 42, Wellington 56: Wellington leads by 14 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Busan 78, Wellington 30: Busan leads by 48 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Busan and Wellington.

Your match

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

Busan
Best match
65match

Wins on wellness and beaches with your weighting.

Wellington
49match

Wins on live music and the arts 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.

Busan in July

27 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
352 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
23 °Csea
14 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

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
BusanWellington

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. Busan: 1991-2020 normals, Pusan (9.7 km from centre). Wellington: 1961-1990 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Wellington Aerodrome Aws (5.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBusanWellington
Official languageKorean, Korean Sign LanguageEnglish, New Zealand Sign Language, Māori
CurrencyWon (KRW)New Zealand Dollar (NZD)
SocketsCF220 V, 60 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+9UTC+12, UTC+13 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 112, ambulance 119, fire 119111
Elevation30 m0 m
Main airportGimhae International Airport (PUS)12 km from centre49 non-stop destinationsWellington International Airport (WLG)5 km from centre20 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year18 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureBusanWellington
City population3,453,198216,200
People per km²4,486487
Museums within 10 km712
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km30
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 Busan 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.