VacationSelector
The Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower, Johannesburg
JohannesburgThe Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower
The red cable car above Wellington, Wellington
WellingtonThe red cable car above Wellington

Photos: Johannesburg by K, Pexels License; Wellington by lumoplank, CC0.

Johannesburg 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 Johannesburg for

  • prices
  • nightlife
  • shopping

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

Choose Wellington for

  • getting around
  • beaches
  • 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. Johannesburg 5, Wellington 33: Wellington leads by 28 points.
Food & drink. Johannesburg 58, Wellington 62: Wellington leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. Johannesburg 56, Wellington 44: Johannesburg leads by 12 points.
Nightlife. Johannesburg 62, Wellington 45: Johannesburg leads by 17 points.
Nature & outdoors. Johannesburg 55, Wellington 78: Wellington leads by 23 points.
Day trips. Johannesburg 52, Wellington 40: Johannesburg leads by 12 points.
Good for families. Johannesburg 42, Wellington 62: Wellington leads by 20 points.
Getting around. Johannesburg 18, Wellington 68: Wellington leads by 50 points.
Shopping & style. Johannesburg 58, Wellington 42: Johannesburg leads by 16 points.
Affordability. Johannesburg 72, Wellington 33: Johannesburg leads by 39 points.
Live music & performing arts. Johannesburg 55, Wellington 56: Wellington leads by 1 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Johannesburg 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: Johannesburg and Wellington.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Johannesburg
47match

Wins on prices and nightlife with your weighting.

Wellington
49match

Wins on getting around and beaches with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Johannesburg in July

19 °Cdaytime high
4 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
No seasea
11 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

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
JohannesburgWellington

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. Johannesburg: 2005-2019 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Johannesburg B / Roosevelt Park (7.3 km from centre). Wellington: 1961-1990 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Wellington Aerodrome Aws (5.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureJohannesburgWellington
Official languageEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign LanguageEnglish, New Zealand Sign Language, Māori
CurrencyRand (ZAR)New Zealand Dollar (NZD)
SocketsCMN230 V, 50 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+2UTC+12, UTC+13 in summer
Emergency number112111
Elevation1,753 m0 m
Main airportO.R. Tambo International Airport (JNB)22 km from centre84 non-stop destinationsWellington International Airport (WLG)5 km from centre20 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureJohannesburgWellington
City population4,803,262216,200
People per km²2,922487
Museums within 10 km1412
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 Johannesburg 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). 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.