VacationSelector
White sand and the turquoise Gulf of Mexico, Gulf Shores
Gulf ShoresWhite sand and the turquoise Gulf of Mexico
The red cable car above Wellington, Wellington
WellingtonThe red cable car above Wellington

Photos: Gulf Shores by ourgulfshoresvacation.com, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Wellington by lumoplank, CC0.

Gulf Shores 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 Gulf Shores for

  • beaches
  • families
  • day trips

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

Choose Wellington for

  • getting around
  • culture and sights
  • 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. Gulf Shores 84, Wellington 33: Gulf Shores leads by 51 points.
Food & drink. Gulf Shores 38, Wellington 62: Wellington leads by 24 points.
Culture & sights. Gulf Shores 12, Wellington 44: Wellington leads by 32 points.
Nightlife. Gulf Shores 32, Wellington 45: Wellington leads by 13 points.
Nature & outdoors. Gulf Shores 52, Wellington 78: Wellington leads by 26 points.
Day trips. Gulf Shores 52, Wellington 40: Gulf Shores leads by 12 points.
Good for families. Gulf Shores 75, Wellington 62: Gulf Shores leads by 13 points.
Getting around. Gulf Shores 15, Wellington 68: Wellington leads by 53 points.
Shopping & style. Gulf Shores 22, Wellington 42: Wellington leads by 20 points.
Affordability. Gulf Shores 42, Wellington 33: Gulf Shores leads by 9 points.
Live music & performing arts. Gulf Shores 27, Wellington 56: Wellington leads by 29 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Gulf Shores 28, Wellington 30: Wellington leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Gulf Shores and Wellington.

Your match

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

Gulf Shores
40match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

Wellington
Best match
49match

Wins on getting around and culture and sights with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Gulf Shores in July

32 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
165 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
Gulf ShoresWellington

Where the figures come from

Gulf Shores 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. Gulf Shores: 2006-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Gulf Shores / Bay Village Mobile Home Park (3.7 km from centre). Wellington: 1961-1990 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Wellington Aerodrome Aws (5.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureGulf ShoresWellington
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
Elevation2 m0 m
Main airportPensacola International Airport (PNS)54 km from centre27 non-stop destinationsWellington International Airport (WLG)5 km from centre20 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureGulf ShoresWellington
City population15,014216,200
People per km²207487
Museums within 10 km112
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C8 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

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