VacationSelector
White sand and parasols on the beach, Destin
DestinWhite sand and parasols on the beach
The red cable car above Wellington, Wellington
WellingtonThe red cable car above Wellington

Photos: Destin by #KenFL74, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Wellington by lumoplank, CC0.

Destin 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 Destin for

  • beaches
  • families
  • day trips

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

Choose Wellington for

  • getting around
  • live music and the arts
  • 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. Destin 86, Wellington 33: Destin leads by 53 points.
Food & drink. Destin 42, Wellington 62: Wellington leads by 20 points.
Culture & sights. Destin 14, Wellington 44: Wellington leads by 30 points.
Nightlife. Destin 36, Wellington 45: Wellington leads by 9 points.
Nature & outdoors. Destin 56, Wellington 78: Wellington leads by 22 points.
Day trips. Destin 44, Wellington 40: Destin leads by 4 points.
Good for families. Destin 72, Wellington 62: Destin leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Destin 20, Wellington 68: Wellington leads by 48 points.
Shopping & style. Destin 40, Wellington 42: Wellington leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Destin 34, Wellington 33: Destin leads by 1 points.
Live music & performing arts. Destin 20, Wellington 56: Wellington leads by 36 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Destin 33, Wellington 30: Destin leads by 3 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Destin and Wellington.

Your match

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

Destin
41match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

Wellington
Best match
49match

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

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Destin in July

32 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
186 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
29 °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°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
DestinWellington

Where the figures come from

Destin 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. Destin: 2006-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Destin (0.8 km from centre). Wellington: 1961-1990 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Wellington Aerodrome Aws (5.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureDestinWellington
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-6, UTC-5 in summerUTC+12, UTC+13 in summer
Emergency number911111
Elevation8 m0 m
Main airportDestin-Fort Walton Beach Airport (VPS)11 km from centre45 non-stop destinationsWellington International Airport (WLG)5 km from centre20 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureDestinWellington
City population13,931216,200
People per km²636487
Museums within 10 km112
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C7 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

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