VacationSelector
Big Ben and Westminster Bridge, London
LondonBig Ben and Westminster Bridge
The red cable car above Wellington, Wellington
WellingtonThe red cable car above Wellington

Photos: London by AXP Photography, Pexels License; Wellington by lumoplank, CC0.

London 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 London for

  • shopping
  • culture and sights
  • day trips

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

Choose Wellington for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • prices
  • 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. London 25, Wellington 33: Wellington leads by 8 points.
Food & drink. London 84, Wellington 62: London leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. London 94, Wellington 44: London leads by 50 points.
Nightlife. London 88, Wellington 45: London leads by 43 points.
Nature & outdoors. London 57, Wellington 78: Wellington leads by 21 points.
Day trips. London 90, Wellington 40: London leads by 50 points.
Good for families. London 82, Wellington 62: London leads by 20 points.
Getting around. London 85, Wellington 68: London leads by 17 points.
Shopping & style. London 95, Wellington 42: London leads by 53 points.
Affordability. London 15, Wellington 33: Wellington leads by 18 points.
Live music & performing arts. London 98, Wellington 56: London leads by 42 points.
Wellness & relaxation. London 40, Wellington 30: London leads by 10 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

London
Best match
71match

Wins on shopping and culture and sights with your weighting.

Wellington
49match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and prices with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

London in July

23 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
46 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
No seasea
16 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°5°10°15°20°25°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
LondonWellington

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. London: 1992-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, London Weather Centre (1.3 km from centre). Wellington: 1961-1990 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Wellington Aerodrome Aws (5.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLondonWellington
Official languageEnglishEnglish, New Zealand Sign Language, Māori
CurrencyPound Sterling (GBP)New Zealand Dollar (NZD)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC+12, UTC+13 in summer
Emergency number112 or 999111
Elevation4 m0 m
Main airportLondon Heathrow Airport (LHR)23 km from centre224 non-stop destinationsWellington International Airport (WLG)5 km from centre20 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year8 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureLondonWellington
City population8,799,728216,200
People per km²5,598487
Museums within 10 km21612
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km40
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 London 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.