VacationSelector
Brooklyn Bridge and Lower Manhattan, New York
New YorkBrooklyn Bridge and Lower Manhattan
The red cable car above Wellington, Wellington
WellingtonThe red cable car above Wellington

Photos: New York by Jakub Hałun, CC BY 4.0, cropped; Wellington by lumoplank, CC0.

New York 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 New York for

  • shopping
  • nightlife
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on New York’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. New York 50, Wellington 33: New York leads by 17 points.
Food & drink. New York 92, Wellington 62: New York leads by 30 points.
Culture & sights. New York 89, Wellington 44: New York leads by 45 points.
Nightlife. New York 97, Wellington 45: New York leads by 52 points.
Nature & outdoors. New York 55, Wellington 78: Wellington leads by 23 points.
Day trips. New York 68, Wellington 40: New York leads by 28 points.
Good for families. New York 70, Wellington 62: New York leads by 8 points.
Getting around. New York 82, Wellington 68: New York leads by 14 points.
Shopping & style. New York 97, Wellington 42: New York leads by 55 points.
Affordability. New York 12, Wellington 33: Wellington leads by 21 points.
Live music & performing arts. New York 99, Wellington 56: New York leads by 43 points.
Wellness & relaxation. New York 42, Wellington 30: New York leads by 12 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

New York
Best match
71match

Wins on shopping and nightlife 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.

New York in July

30 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
107 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
22 °Csea
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
New YorkWellington

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. New York: 1991-2020 normals, LaGuardia Airport (12.9 km from centre). Wellington: 1961-1990 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Wellington Aerodrome Aws (5.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureNew YorkWellington
Official language-English, New Zealand Sign Language, Māori
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)New Zealand Dollar (NZD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC+12, UTC+13 in summer
Emergency number911111
Elevation25 m0 m
Main airportJohn F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK)21 km from centre189 non-stop destinationsWellington International Airport (WLG)5 km from centre20 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureNew YorkWellington
City population8,804,190216,200
People per km²7,256487
Museums within 10 km15712
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °C3 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

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