VacationSelector
Main Beach with its palms and lifeguard tower, Laguna Beach
Laguna BeachMain Beach with its palms and lifeguard tower
The red cable car above Wellington, Wellington
WellingtonThe red cable car above Wellington

Photos: Laguna Beach by Mark Stebnicki, Pexels License; Wellington by lumoplank, CC0.

Laguna Beach 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 Laguna Beach for

  • beaches
  • day trips
  • wellness

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

Choose Wellington for

  • getting around
  • nightlife
  • food and drink

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. Laguna Beach 72, Wellington 33: Laguna Beach leads by 39 points.
Food & drink. Laguna Beach 40, Wellington 62: Wellington leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. Laguna Beach 27, Wellington 44: Wellington leads by 17 points.
Nightlife. Laguna Beach 18, Wellington 45: Wellington leads by 27 points.
Nature & outdoors. Laguna Beach 73, Wellington 78: Wellington leads by 5 points.
Day trips. Laguna Beach 72, Wellington 40: Laguna Beach leads by 32 points.
Good for families. Laguna Beach 68, Wellington 62: Laguna Beach leads by 6 points.
Getting around. Laguna Beach 33, Wellington 68: Wellington leads by 35 points.
Shopping & style. Laguna Beach 46, Wellington 42: Laguna Beach leads by 4 points.
Affordability. Laguna Beach 12, Wellington 33: Wellington leads by 21 points.
Live music & performing arts. Laguna Beach 40, Wellington 56: Wellington leads by 16 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Laguna Beach 47, Wellington 30: Laguna Beach leads by 17 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Laguna Beach
46match

Wins on beaches and day trips with your weighting.

Wellington
Best match
49match

Wins on getting around and nightlife with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Laguna Beach in July

28 °Cdaytime high
17 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
20 °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°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
Laguna BeachWellington

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. Laguna Beach: 1981-2010 normals, Irvine (15.5 km from centre). Wellington: 1961-1990 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Wellington Aerodrome Aws (5.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLaguna BeachWellington
Official language-English, New Zealand Sign Language, Māori
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)New Zealand Dollar (NZD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-8, UTC-7 in summerUTC+12, UTC+13 in summer
Emergency number911111
Elevation6 m0 m
Main airportJohn Wayne Orange County International Airport (SNA)18 km from centre53 non-stop destinationsWellington International Airport (WLG)5 km from centre20 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureLaguna BeachWellington
City population23,032216,200
People per km²907487
Museums within 10 km212
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °CNoneNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Laguna Beach 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.