VacationSelector
Santo Domingo church behind agaves, Oaxaca
OaxacaSanto Domingo church behind agaves
The red cable car above Wellington, Wellington
WellingtonThe red cable car above Wellington

Photos: Oaxaca by Öskr Rck, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Wellington by lumoplank, CC0.

Oaxaca 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 Oaxaca for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • day trips

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

Choose Wellington for

  • beaches
  • families
  • live music and the arts

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. Oaxaca 5, Wellington 33: Wellington leads by 28 points.
Food & drink. Oaxaca 84, Wellington 62: Oaxaca leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. Oaxaca 74, Wellington 44: Oaxaca leads by 30 points.
Nightlife. Oaxaca 40, Wellington 45: Wellington leads by 5 points.
Nature & outdoors. Oaxaca 62, Wellington 78: Wellington leads by 16 points.
Day trips. Oaxaca 65, Wellington 40: Oaxaca leads by 25 points.
Good for families. Oaxaca 40, Wellington 62: Wellington leads by 22 points.
Getting around. Oaxaca 55, Wellington 68: Wellington leads by 13 points.
Shopping & style. Oaxaca 62, Wellington 42: Oaxaca leads by 20 points.
Affordability. Oaxaca 77, Wellington 33: Oaxaca leads by 44 points.
Live music & performing arts. Oaxaca 38, Wellington 56: Wellington leads by 18 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Oaxaca 50, Wellington 30: Oaxaca leads by 20 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Oaxaca and Wellington.

Your match

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

Oaxaca
Best match
54match

Wins on prices and culture and sights with your weighting.

Wellington
49match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Oaxaca in July

28 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
80 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
No seasea
13 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

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
OaxacaWellington

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. Oaxaca: 1961-1990 normals, Oaxaca, Oax. (1.1 km from centre). Wellington: 1961-1990 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Wellington Aerodrome Aws (5.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureOaxacaWellington
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaEnglish, New Zealand Sign Language, Māori
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)New Zealand Dollar (NZD)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-6UTC+12, UTC+13 in summer
Emergency number911111
Elevation1,555 m0 m
Main airportXoxocotlán International Airport (OAX)7 km from centre14 non-stop destinationsWellington International Airport (WLG)5 km from centre20 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureOaxacaWellington
City population258,913216,200
People per km²3,028487
Museums within 10 km1012
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
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 Oaxaca 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). 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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.