VacationSelector
The fountain on Plaza Mayor, Lima
LimaThe fountain on Plaza Mayor
The red cable car above Wellington, Wellington
WellingtonThe red cable car above Wellington

Photos: Lima by James C., CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Wellington by lumoplank, CC0.

Lima 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 Lima for

  • prices
  • food and drink
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Wellington for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • getting around
  • families

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. Lima 42, Wellington 33: Lima leads by 9 points.
Food & drink. Lima 88, Wellington 62: Lima leads by 26 points.
Culture & sights. Lima 66, Wellington 44: Lima leads by 22 points.
Nightlife. Lima 62, Wellington 45: Lima leads by 17 points.
Nature & outdoors. Lima 45, Wellington 78: Wellington leads by 33 points.
Day trips. Lima 34, Wellington 40: Wellington leads by 6 points.
Good for families. Lima 42, Wellington 62: Wellington leads by 20 points.
Getting around. Lima 35, Wellington 68: Wellington leads by 33 points.
Shopping & style. Lima 52, Wellington 42: Lima leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Lima 70, Wellington 33: Lima leads by 37 points.
Live music & performing arts. Lima 53, Wellington 56: Wellington leads by 3 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Lima 25, Wellington 30: Wellington leads by 5 points.
0255075100

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

Lima
51match

Wins on prices and food and drink with your weighting.

Wellington
49match

Wins on nature and the outdoors 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.

Lima in July

19 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
1 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
12 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
LimaWellington

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. Lima: 1991-2020 normals, Lima-Callao / Aerop. Internacional Jorgechavez (10.9 km from centre). Wellington: 1961-1990 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Wellington Aerodrome Aws (5.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLimaWellington
Official languageSpanish, Aymara, QuechuaEnglish, New Zealand Sign Language, Māori
CurrencySol (PEN)New Zealand Dollar (NZD)
SocketsABC220 V, 60 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+12, UTC+13 in summer
Emergency number111 or 911111
Elevation154 m0 m
Main airportJorge Chávez International Airport (LIM)9 km from centre61 non-stop destinationsWellington International Airport (WLG)5 km from centre20 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureLimaWellington
City population9,943,800216,200
People per km²3,721487
Museums within 10 km4712
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °C2 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Lima 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). 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. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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.