VacationSelector
Flinders Street Station, Melbourne
MelbourneFlinders Street Station
The red cable car above Wellington, Wellington
WellingtonThe red cable car above Wellington

Photos: Melbourne by Medelam, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Wellington by lumoplank, CC0.

Melbourne 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 Melbourne for

  • nightlife
  • shopping
  • wellness

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

Choose Wellington for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • prices

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. Melbourne 50, Wellington 33: Melbourne leads by 17 points.
Food & drink. Melbourne 75, Wellington 62: Melbourne leads by 13 points.
Culture & sights. Melbourne 57, Wellington 44: Melbourne leads by 13 points.
Nightlife. Melbourne 75, Wellington 45: Melbourne leads by 30 points.
Nature & outdoors. Melbourne 70, Wellington 78: Wellington leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Melbourne 62, Wellington 40: Melbourne leads by 22 points.
Good for families. Melbourne 73, Wellington 62: Melbourne leads by 11 points.
Getting around. Melbourne 76, Wellington 68: Melbourne leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. Melbourne 70, Wellington 42: Melbourne leads by 28 points.
Affordability. Melbourne 31, Wellington 33: Wellington leads by 2 points.
Live music & performing arts. Melbourne 72, Wellington 56: Melbourne leads by 16 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Melbourne 54, Wellington 30: Melbourne leads by 24 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Melbourne
Best match
64match

Wins on nightlife and shopping 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.

Melbourne in July

14 °Cdaytime high
6 °Cnight-time low
46 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
12 °Csea
10 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
MelbourneWellington

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. Melbourne: 1991-2020 normals, Latrobe University / Kingsbury (13.1 km from centre). Wellington: 1961-1990 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Wellington Aerodrome Aws (5.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMelbourneWellington
Official languageEnglishEnglish, New Zealand Sign Language, Māori
CurrencyAustralian Dollar (AUD)New Zealand Dollar (NZD)
SocketsI230 V, 50 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+10, UTC+11 in summerUTC+12, UTC+13 in summer
Emergency number000111
Elevation31 m0 m
Main airportMelbourne Airport (MEL)19 km from centre69 non-stop destinationsWellington International Airport (WLG)5 km from centre20 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureMelbourneWellington
City population5,350,705216,200
People per km²535487
Museums within 10 km4312
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °CNoneNone

Where else could you go?

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