VacationSelector
Flinders Street Station, Melbourne
MelbourneFlinders Street Station
The Riverwalk and the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge, Wilmington
WilmingtonThe Riverwalk and the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge

Photos: Melbourne by Medelam, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Wilmington by Unexpected Snacks, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Melbourne or Wilmington?

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

  • getting around
  • shopping
  • nightlife

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

Choose Wilmington for

  • beaches
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Wilmington’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, Wilmington 73: Wilmington leads by 23 points.
Food & drink. Melbourne 75, Wilmington 48: Melbourne leads by 27 points.
Culture & sights. Melbourne 57, Wilmington 40: Melbourne leads by 17 points.
Nightlife. Melbourne 75, Wilmington 40: Melbourne leads by 35 points.
Nature & outdoors. Melbourne 70, Wilmington 58: Melbourne leads by 12 points.
Day trips. Melbourne 62, Wilmington 45: Melbourne leads by 17 points.
Good for families. Melbourne 73, Wilmington 62: Melbourne leads by 11 points.
Getting around. Melbourne 76, Wilmington 28: Melbourne leads by 48 points.
Shopping & style. Melbourne 70, Wilmington 33: Melbourne leads by 37 points.
Affordability. Melbourne 31, Wilmington 42: Wilmington leads by 11 points.
Live music & performing arts. Melbourne 72, Wilmington 40: Melbourne leads by 32 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Melbourne 54, Wilmington 33: Melbourne leads by 21 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Melbourne and Wilmington.

Your match

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

Melbourne
Best match
64match

Wins on getting around and shopping with your weighting.

Wilmington
45match

Wins on beaches 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

Wilmington in July

32 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
174 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
27 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
MelbourneWilmington

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Melbourne: 1991-2020 normals, Latrobe University / Kingsbury (13.1 km from centre). Wilmington: 1991-2020 normals, Wilmington / The Palms Mobile Home Park (5.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMelbourneWilmington
Official languageEnglish-
CurrencyAustralian Dollar (AUD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsI230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+10, UTC+11 in summerUTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number000911
Elevation31 m9 m
Main airportMelbourne Airport (MEL)19 km from centre69 non-stop destinationsWilmington International Airport (ILM)5 km from centre25 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureMelbourneWilmington
City population5,350,705115,451
People per km²535839
Museums within 10 km432
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone6 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Melbourne or Wilmington 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.