VacationSelector
The Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign, Las Vegas
Las VegasThe Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign
The red cable car above Wellington, Wellington
WellingtonThe red cable car above Wellington

Photos: Las Vegas by Christian David, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Wellington by lumoplank, CC0.

Las Vegas 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 Las Vegas for

  • nightlife
  • shopping
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Wellington for

  • families
  • getting around
  • beaches

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. Las Vegas 10, Wellington 33: Wellington leads by 23 points.
Food & drink. Las Vegas 68, Wellington 62: Las Vegas leads by 6 points.
Culture & sights. Las Vegas 25, Wellington 44: Wellington leads by 19 points.
Nightlife. Las Vegas 88, Wellington 45: Las Vegas leads by 43 points.
Nature & outdoors. Las Vegas 68, Wellington 78: Wellington leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Las Vegas 25, Wellington 40: Wellington leads by 15 points.
Good for families. Las Vegas 25, Wellington 62: Wellington leads by 37 points.
Getting around. Las Vegas 38, Wellington 68: Wellington leads by 30 points.
Shopping & style. Las Vegas 64, Wellington 42: Las Vegas leads by 22 points.
Affordability. Las Vegas 35, Wellington 33: Las Vegas leads by 2 points.
Live music & performing arts. Las Vegas 78, Wellington 56: Las Vegas leads by 22 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Las Vegas 40, Wellington 30: Las Vegas leads by 10 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Las Vegas 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

Las Vegas
47match

Wins on nightlife and shopping with your weighting.

Wellington
49match

Wins on families 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.

Las Vegas in July

40 °Cdaytime high
27 °Cnight-time low
9 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
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°50°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
Las VegasWellington

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. Las Vegas: 1991-2020 normals, McCarran International Airport (8.5 km from centre). Wellington: 1961-1990 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Wellington Aerodrome Aws (5.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLas VegasWellington
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
Elevation610 m0 m
Main airportHarry Reid International Airport (LAS)4 km from centre159 non-stop destinationsWellington International Airport (WLG)5 km from centre20 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureLas VegasWellington
City population641,903216,200
People per km²1,843487
Museums within 10 km2112
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
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 Las Vegas 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.