VacationSelector
The golden Dome of the Rock, Jerusalem
JerusalemThe golden Dome of the Rock
The red cable car above Wellington, Wellington
WellingtonThe red cable car above Wellington

Photos: Jerusalem by Yasir Gürbüz, Pexels License; Wellington by lumoplank, CC0.

Jerusalem 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 Jerusalem for

  • culture and sights
  • day trips
  • wellness

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

Choose Wellington for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • live music and the arts
  • getting around

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. Jerusalem 40, Wellington 33: Jerusalem leads by 7 points.
Food & drink. Jerusalem 66, Wellington 62: Jerusalem leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. Jerusalem 92, Wellington 44: Jerusalem leads by 48 points.
Nightlife. Jerusalem 38, Wellington 45: Wellington leads by 7 points.
Nature & outdoors. Jerusalem 60, Wellington 78: Wellington leads by 18 points.
Day trips. Jerusalem 80, Wellington 40: Jerusalem leads by 40 points.
Good for families. Jerusalem 52, Wellington 62: Wellington leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Jerusalem 55, Wellington 68: Wellington leads by 13 points.
Shopping & style. Jerusalem 48, Wellington 42: Jerusalem leads by 6 points.
Affordability. Jerusalem 20, Wellington 33: Wellington leads by 13 points.
Live music & performing arts. Jerusalem 40, Wellington 56: Wellington leads by 16 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Jerusalem 42, Wellington 30: Jerusalem leads by 12 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Jerusalem
Best match
53match

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

Wellington
49match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and live music and the arts with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Jerusalem in July

30 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
27 °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

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
JerusalemWellington

Where the figures come from

Jerusalem 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. Jerusalem: 1991-2020 normals, Jerusalem (1.8 km from centre). Wellington: 1961-1990 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Wellington Aerodrome Aws (5.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureJerusalemWellington
Official languageHebrewEnglish, New Zealand Sign Language, Māori
CurrencyNew Israeli Sheqel (ILS)New Zealand Dollar (NZD)
SocketsCHM230 V, 50 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+2, UTC+3 in summerUTC+12, UTC+13 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 100, fire 102111
Elevation754 m0 m
Main airportBen Gurion International Airport (TLV)42 km from centre111 non-stop destinationsWellington International Airport (WLG)5 km from centre20 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-12 days

By the numbers

MeasureJerusalemWellington
City population1,050,151216,200
People per km²8,374487
Museums within 10 km6912
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km70
Swim season, months above 21 °C7 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Jerusalem 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). 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. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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.