VacationSelector
The railway viaduct over the canal, Castlefield, Manchester
ManchesterThe railway viaduct over the canal, Castlefield
The red cable car above Wellington, Wellington
WellingtonThe red cable car above Wellington

Photos: Manchester by IIya Kuzhekin, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Wellington by lumoplank, CC0.

Manchester 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 Manchester for

  • day trips
  • nightlife
  • shopping

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

Choose Wellington for

  • beaches
  • wellness
  • 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. Manchester 9, Wellington 33: Wellington leads by 24 points.
Food & drink. Manchester 51, Wellington 62: Wellington leads by 11 points.
Culture & sights. Manchester 50, Wellington 44: Manchester leads by 6 points.
Nightlife. Manchester 72, Wellington 45: Manchester leads by 27 points.
Nature & outdoors. Manchester 64, Wellington 78: Wellington leads by 14 points.
Day trips. Manchester 77, Wellington 40: Manchester leads by 37 points.
Good for families. Manchester 58, Wellington 62: Wellington leads by 4 points.
Getting around. Manchester and Wellington are level on 68.
Shopping & style. Manchester 62, Wellington 42: Manchester leads by 20 points.
Affordability. Manchester 42, Wellington 33: Manchester leads by 9 points.
Live music & performing arts. Manchester 74, Wellington 56: Manchester leads by 18 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Manchester 15, Wellington 30: Wellington leads by 15 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Manchester
Best match
54match

Wins on day trips and nightlife with your weighting.

Wellington
49match

Wins on beaches and wellness with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Manchester in July

21 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
60 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
16 °Csea
17 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
ManchesterWellington

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. Manchester: 1991-2020 normals, Manchester Airport (14.8 km from centre). Wellington: 1961-1990 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Wellington Aerodrome Aws (5.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureManchesterWellington
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
Elevation38 m0 m
Main airportManchester Airport (MAN)15 km from centre211 non-stop destinationsWellington International Airport (WLG)5 km from centre20 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year8 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureManchesterWellington
City population547,627216,200
People per km²4,737487
Museums within 10 km2812
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °CNoneNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Manchester 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). 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. 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.