VacationSelector
Rocks and beach in Tangolunda Bay, Huatulco
HuatulcoRocks and beach in Tangolunda Bay
The red cable car above Wellington, Wellington
WellingtonThe red cable car above Wellington

Photos: Huatulco by Gzzz, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Wellington by lumoplank, CC0.

Huatulco 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 Huatulco for

  • beaches
  • prices
  • wellness

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

Choose Wellington for

  • live music and the arts
  • getting around
  • 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. Huatulco 86, Wellington 33: Huatulco leads by 53 points.
Food & drink. Huatulco 44, Wellington 62: Wellington leads by 18 points.
Culture & sights. Huatulco 15, Wellington 44: Wellington leads by 29 points.
Nightlife. Huatulco 24, Wellington 45: Wellington leads by 21 points.
Nature & outdoors. Huatulco 76, Wellington 78: Wellington leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Huatulco and Wellington are level on 40.
Good for families. Huatulco 56, Wellington 62: Wellington leads by 6 points.
Getting around. Huatulco 33, Wellington 68: Wellington leads by 35 points.
Shopping & style. Huatulco 20, Wellington 42: Wellington leads by 22 points.
Affordability. Huatulco 62, Wellington 33: Huatulco leads by 29 points.
Live music & performing arts. Huatulco 9, Wellington 56: Wellington leads by 47 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Huatulco 52, Wellington 30: Huatulco leads by 22 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Huatulco and Wellington.

Your match

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

Huatulco
43match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

Wellington
Best match
49match

Wins on live music and the arts 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.

Huatulco in July

33 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
156 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
30 °Csea
13 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

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
HuatulcoWellington

Where the figures come from

Huatulco's temperatures are measured 42 km from the centre, at Puerto Angel, Oax..

Huatulco's station stands 177 m below the city centre, so the centre is likely a little cooler than the figures say.

Huatulco 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. Huatulco: 1991-2020 normals, Puerto Angel, Oax. (42.2 km from centre). Wellington: 1961-1990 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Wellington Aerodrome Aws (5.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureHuatulcoWellington
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaEnglish, New Zealand Sign Language, Māori
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)New Zealand Dollar (NZD)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-6UTC+12, UTC+13 in summer
Emergency number911111
Elevation220 m0 m
Main airportBahías de Huatulco International Airport (HUX)15 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsWellington International Airport (WLG)5 km from centre20 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureHuatulcoWellington
City population7,409216,200
People per km²-487
Museums within 10 km012
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 Huatulco 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.