VacationSelector
The Burj Al Arab, Dubai
DubaiThe Burj Al Arab
The red cable car above Wellington, Wellington
WellingtonThe red cable car above Wellington

Photos: Dubai by Aleksandar Pasaric, Pexels License; Wellington by lumoplank, CC0.

Dubai 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 Dubai for

  • beaches
  • shopping
  • families

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

Choose Wellington for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • getting around
  • 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. Dubai 80, Wellington 33: Dubai leads by 47 points.
Food & drink. Dubai 76, Wellington 62: Dubai leads by 14 points.
Culture & sights. Dubai 40, Wellington 44: Wellington leads by 4 points.
Nightlife. Dubai 62, Wellington 45: Dubai leads by 17 points.
Nature & outdoors. Dubai 25, Wellington 78: Wellington leads by 53 points.
Day trips. Dubai 45, Wellington 40: Dubai leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Dubai 82, Wellington 62: Dubai leads by 20 points.
Getting around. Dubai 42, Wellington 68: Wellington leads by 26 points.
Shopping & style. Dubai 82, Wellington 42: Dubai leads by 40 points.
Affordability. Dubai 32, Wellington 33: Wellington leads by 1 points.
Live music & performing arts. Dubai 40, Wellington 56: Wellington leads by 16 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Dubai 46, Wellington 30: Dubai leads by 16 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Dubai
Best match
54match

Wins on beaches and shopping with your weighting.

Wellington
49match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and getting around with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Dubai in July

42 °Cdaytime high
33 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
33 °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°50°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
DubaiWellington

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. Dubai: 1991-2020 normals, Dubai International Airport (3.3 km from centre). Wellington: 1961-1990 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Wellington Aerodrome Aws (5.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureDubaiWellington
Official languageArabicEnglish, New Zealand Sign Language, Māori
CurrencyUAE Dirham (AED)New Zealand Dollar (NZD)
SocketsCG220 V, 50 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+4UTC+12, UTC+13 in summer
Emergency number112111
Elevation0 m0 m
Main airportDubai International Airport (DXB)7 km from centre294 non-stop destinationsWellington International Airport (WLG)5 km from centre20 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-12 days

By the numbers

MeasureDubaiWellington
City population3,944,751216,200
People per km²-487
Museums within 10 km1412
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Dubai 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). 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. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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.