VacationSelector
The Aare at Unterseen, Interlaken, Interlaken
InterlakenThe Aare at Unterseen, Interlaken
The red cable car above Wellington, Wellington
WellingtonThe red cable car above Wellington

Photos: Interlaken by Roy Egloff, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Wellington by lumoplank, CC0.

Interlaken 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 Interlaken for

  • day trips
  • nature and the outdoors
  • getting around

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

Choose Wellington for

  • live music and the arts
  • food and drink
  • 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. Interlaken 30, Wellington 33: Wellington leads by 3 points.
Food & drink. Interlaken 25, Wellington 62: Wellington leads by 37 points.
Culture & sights. Interlaken 8, Wellington 44: Wellington leads by 36 points.
Nightlife. Interlaken 15, Wellington 45: Wellington leads by 30 points.
Nature & outdoors. Interlaken 97, Wellington 78: Interlaken leads by 19 points.
Day trips. Interlaken 78, Wellington 40: Interlaken leads by 38 points.
Good for families. Interlaken 72, Wellington 62: Interlaken leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Interlaken 80, Wellington 68: Interlaken leads by 12 points.
Shopping & style. Interlaken 22, Wellington 42: Wellington leads by 20 points.
Affordability. Interlaken 8, Wellington 33: Wellington leads by 25 points.
Live music & performing arts. Interlaken 15, Wellington 56: Wellington leads by 41 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Interlaken 40, Wellington 30: Interlaken leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Interlaken and Wellington.

Your match

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

Interlaken
41match

Wins on day trips and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Wellington
Best match
49match

Wins on live music and the arts 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.

Interlaken in July

24 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
126 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
15 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

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
InterlakenWellington

Where the figures come from

Interlaken 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. Interlaken: 2005-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Meiringen / Unterbach (19.3 km from centre). Wellington: 1961-1990 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Wellington Aerodrome Aws (5.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureInterlakenWellington
Official languageFrench, German, Italian, RomanshEnglish, New Zealand Sign Language, Māori
CurrencySwiss Franc (CHF)New Zealand Dollar (NZD)
SocketsCJ230 V, 50 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+12, UTC+13 in summer
Emergency number112111
Elevation571 m0 m
Main airportZürich Airport (ZRH)100 km from centre226 non-stop destinationsWellington International Airport (WLG)5 km from centre20 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureInterlakenWellington
City population6,123216,200
People per km²1,424487
Museums within 10 km312
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
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 Interlaken 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). 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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.