VacationSelector
The Royal Palace, Madrid
MadridThe Royal Palace
The red cable car above Wellington, Wellington
WellingtonThe red cable car above Wellington

Photos: Madrid by Mert Ocak, Pexels License; Wellington by lumoplank, CC0.

Madrid 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 Madrid for

  • day trips
  • culture and sights
  • nightlife

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

Choose Wellington for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors

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. Madrid 5, Wellington 33: Wellington leads by 28 points.
Food & drink. Madrid 80, Wellington 62: Madrid leads by 18 points.
Culture & sights. Madrid 86, Wellington 44: Madrid leads by 42 points.
Nightlife. Madrid 85, Wellington 45: Madrid leads by 40 points.
Nature & outdoors. Madrid 60, Wellington 78: Wellington leads by 18 points.
Day trips. Madrid 89, Wellington 40: Madrid leads by 49 points.
Good for families. Madrid 68, Wellington 62: Madrid leads by 6 points.
Getting around. Madrid 84, Wellington 68: Madrid leads by 16 points.
Shopping & style. Madrid 75, Wellington 42: Madrid leads by 33 points.
Affordability. Madrid 50, Wellington 33: Madrid leads by 17 points.
Live music & performing arts. Madrid 77, Wellington 56: Madrid leads by 21 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Madrid 36, Wellington 30: Madrid leads by 6 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Madrid
Best match
66match

Wins on day trips and culture and sights with your weighting.

Wellington
49match

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

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Madrid in July

33 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
9 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
No seasea
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°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
MadridWellington

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. Madrid: 1991-2020 normals, Madrid (1.7 km from centre). Wellington: 1961-1990 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Wellington Aerodrome Aws (5.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMadridWellington
Official languageSpanishEnglish, New Zealand Sign Language, Māori
CurrencyEuro (EUR)New Zealand Dollar (NZD)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+12, UTC+13 in summer
Emergency number112111
Elevation663 m0 m
Main airportAdolfo Suárez Madrid–Barajas Airport (MAD)14 km from centre239 non-stop destinationsWellington International Airport (WLG)5 km from centre20 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureMadridWellington
City population3,506,730216,200
People per km²5,801487
Museums within 10 km8812
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 Madrid 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). 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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.