VacationSelector
The old town on the Neckar, Heidelberg
HeidelbergThe old town on the Neckar
The red cable car above Wellington, Wellington
WellingtonThe red cable car above Wellington

Photos: Heidelberg by Kuanling Chen, Pexels License; Wellington by lumoplank, CC0.

Heidelberg 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 Heidelberg for

  • day trips
  • culture and sights
  • wellness

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

Choose Wellington for

  • beaches
  • food and drink
  • nature and the outdoors

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. Heidelberg 7, Wellington 33: Wellington leads by 26 points.
Food & drink. Heidelberg 40, Wellington 62: Wellington leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. Heidelberg 58, Wellington 44: Heidelberg leads by 14 points.
Nightlife. Heidelberg 38, Wellington 45: Wellington leads by 7 points.
Nature & outdoors. Heidelberg 60, Wellington 78: Wellington leads by 18 points.
Day trips. Heidelberg 78, Wellington 40: Heidelberg leads by 38 points.
Good for families. Heidelberg and Wellington are level on 62.
Getting around. Heidelberg 72, Wellington 68: Heidelberg leads by 4 points.
Shopping & style. Heidelberg 40, Wellington 42: Wellington leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Heidelberg 42, Wellington 33: Heidelberg leads by 9 points.
Live music & performing arts. Heidelberg 48, Wellington 56: Wellington leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Heidelberg 44, Wellington 30: Heidelberg leads by 14 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Too close to call, level with your weighting

Heidelberg
49match

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

Wellington
49match

Wins on beaches and food and drink with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Heidelberg in July

26 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
80 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
No seasea
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°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
HeidelbergWellington

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. Heidelberg: 1991-2020 normals, Heidelberg (4.5 km from centre). Wellington: 1961-1990 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Wellington Aerodrome Aws (5.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureHeidelbergWellington
Official languageGermanEnglish, New Zealand Sign Language, Māori
CurrencyEuro (EUR)New Zealand Dollar (NZD)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+12, UTC+13 in summer
Emergency number112111
Elevation114 m0 m
Main airportFrankfurt Main Airport (FRA)69 km from centre281 non-stop destinationsWellington International Airport (WLG)5 km from centre20 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureHeidelbergWellington
City population156,092216,200
People per km²1,433487
Museums within 10 km1712
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km40
Swim season, months above 21 °C-None

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Heidelberg 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. 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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.