VacationSelector
Korenlei reflected in the Leie, Ghent
GhentKorenlei reflected in the Leie
The red cable car above Wellington, Wellington
WellingtonThe red cable car above Wellington

Photos: Ghent by ykeiko, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Wellington by lumoplank, CC0.

Ghent 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 Ghent for

  • day trips
  • culture and sights
  • nightlife

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

Choose Wellington for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • families
  • beaches

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. Ghent 25, Wellington 33: Wellington leads by 8 points.
Food & drink. Ghent and Wellington are level on 62.
Culture & sights. Ghent 72, Wellington 44: Ghent leads by 28 points.
Nightlife. Ghent 55, Wellington 45: Ghent leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. Ghent 35, Wellington 78: Wellington leads by 43 points.
Day trips. Ghent 88, Wellington 40: Ghent leads by 48 points.
Good for families. Ghent 50, Wellington 62: Wellington leads by 12 points.
Getting around. Ghent 78, Wellington 68: Ghent leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Ghent 50, Wellington 42: Ghent leads by 8 points.
Affordability. Ghent 38, Wellington 33: Ghent leads by 5 points.
Live music & performing arts. Ghent 60, Wellington 56: Ghent leads by 4 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Ghent 33, Wellington 30: Ghent leads by 3 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Ghent
Best match
54match

Wins on day trips and culture and sights with your weighting.

Wellington
49match

Wins on nature and the outdoors 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.

Ghent in July

23 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
77 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
16 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°5°10°15°20°25°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
GhentWellington

Where the figures come from

Ghent 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.

Ghent's sunshine is measured 45 km from the centre, at Vlissingen.

Wellington's sunshine is measured 47 km from the centre, at Paraparaumu Aerodrome.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Ghent: 2009-2025 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Melle / Kalverhaag (10.1 km from centre). Wellington: 1961-1990 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Wellington Aerodrome Aws (5.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureGhentWellington
Official languageFrench, German, DutchEnglish, New Zealand Sign Language, Māori
CurrencyEuro (EUR)New Zealand Dollar (NZD)
SocketsCE230 V, 50 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+12, UTC+13 in summer
Emergency number112111
Elevation12 m0 m
Main airportBrussels Airport (BRU)56 km from centre191 non-stop destinationsWellington International Airport (WLG)5 km from centre20 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureGhentWellington
City population272,657216,200
People per km²1,728487
Museums within 10 km3012
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km50
Swim season, months above 21 °CNoneNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Ghent or Wellington somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national 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). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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.