VacationSelector
A yellow tram in a narrow street, Lisbon
LisbonA yellow tram in a narrow street
The red cable car above Wellington, Wellington
WellingtonThe red cable car above Wellington

Photos: Lisbon by Riccardo Toso, Pexels License; Wellington by lumoplank, CC0.

Lisbon 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 Lisbon for

  • day trips
  • culture and sights
  • nightlife

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

Choose Wellington for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • 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. Lisbon 50, Wellington 33: Lisbon leads by 17 points.
Food & drink. Lisbon 75, Wellington 62: Lisbon leads by 13 points.
Culture & sights. Lisbon 78, Wellington 44: Lisbon leads by 34 points.
Nightlife. Lisbon 75, Wellington 45: Lisbon leads by 30 points.
Nature & outdoors. Lisbon 75, Wellington 78: Wellington leads by 3 points.
Day trips. Lisbon 82, Wellington 40: Lisbon leads by 42 points.
Good for families. Lisbon and Wellington are level on 62.
Getting around. Lisbon 66, Wellington 68: Wellington leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Lisbon 60, Wellington 42: Lisbon leads by 18 points.
Affordability. Lisbon 55, Wellington 33: Lisbon leads by 22 points.
Live music & performing arts. Lisbon 60, Wellington 56: Lisbon leads by 4 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Lisbon 36, Wellington 30: Lisbon leads by 6 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Lisbon
Best match
65match

Wins on day trips and culture and sights 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.

Lisbon in July

28 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
3 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
15 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
LisbonWellington

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. Lisbon: 1991-2020 normals, Lisboa / Geof (1.1 km from centre). Wellington: 1961-1990 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Wellington Aerodrome Aws (5.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLisbonWellington
Official languagePortugueseEnglish, New Zealand Sign Language, Māori
CurrencyEuro (EUR)New Zealand Dollar (NZD)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC+12, UTC+13 in summer
Emergency number112111
Elevation100 m0 m
Main airportLisbon Humberto Delgado Airport (LIS)7 km from centre156 non-stop destinationsWellington International Airport (WLG)5 km from centre20 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureLisbonWellington
City population545,796216,200
People per km²5,453487
Museums within 10 km8012
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km30
Swim season, months above 21 °CNoneNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Lisbon 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). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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.