VacationSelector
Lion's Head above Clifton Beach, Cape Town
Cape TownLion's Head above Clifton Beach
The red cable car above Wellington, Wellington
WellingtonThe red cable car above Wellington

Photos: Cape Town by Stephan Louis, Pexels License; Wellington by lumoplank, CC0.

Cape Town 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 Cape Town for

  • prices
  • day trips
  • beaches

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

Choose Wellington for

  • getting around
  • families
  • live music and the arts

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. Cape Town 58, Wellington 33: Cape Town leads by 25 points.
Food & drink. Cape Town 72, Wellington 62: Cape Town leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. Cape Town 60, Wellington 44: Cape Town leads by 16 points.
Nightlife. Cape Town 60, Wellington 45: Cape Town leads by 15 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cape Town 98, Wellington 78: Cape Town leads by 20 points.
Day trips. Cape Town 68, Wellington 40: Cape Town leads by 28 points.
Good for families. Cape Town 58, Wellington 62: Wellington leads by 4 points.
Getting around. Cape Town 35, Wellington 68: Wellington leads by 33 points.
Shopping & style. Cape Town 50, Wellington 42: Cape Town leads by 8 points.
Affordability. Cape Town 72, Wellington 33: Cape Town leads by 39 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cape Town 52, Wellington 56: Wellington leads by 4 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cape Town 45, Wellington 30: Cape Town leads by 15 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Cape Town
Best match
61match

Wins on prices and day trips with your weighting.

Wellington
49match

Wins on getting around and families with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Cape Town in July

18 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
89 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
15 °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

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
Cape TownWellington

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. Cape Town: 1991-2020 normals, Cape Town Airport (17.5 km from centre). Wellington: 1961-1990 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Wellington Aerodrome Aws (5.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCape TownWellington
Official languageEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign LanguageEnglish, New Zealand Sign Language, Māori
CurrencyRand (ZAR)New Zealand Dollar (NZD)
SocketsCMN230 V, 50 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+2UTC+12, UTC+13 in summer
Emergency number112111
Elevation5 m0 m
Main airportCape Town International Airport (CPT)18 km from centre45 non-stop destinationsWellington International Airport (WLG)5 km from centre20 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureCape TownWellington
City population3,776,313216,200
People per km²1,538487
Museums within 10 km2212
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km30
Swim season, months above 21 °CNoneNone

Where else could you go?

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