VacationSelector
Shitennō-ji temple, Osaka
OsakaShitennō-ji temple
The red cable car above Wellington, Wellington
WellingtonThe red cable car above Wellington

Photos: Osaka by Sarmat Batagov, Pexels License; Wellington by lumoplank, CC0.

Osaka 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 Osaka for

  • day trips
  • shopping
  • wellness

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

Choose Wellington for

  • 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. Osaka 34, Wellington 33: Osaka leads by 1 points.
Food & drink. Osaka 91, Wellington 62: Osaka leads by 29 points.
Culture & sights. Osaka 63, Wellington 44: Osaka leads by 19 points.
Nightlife. Osaka 80, Wellington 45: Osaka leads by 35 points.
Nature & outdoors. Osaka 58, Wellington 78: Wellington leads by 20 points.
Day trips. Osaka 97, Wellington 40: Osaka leads by 57 points.
Good for families. Osaka 88, Wellington 62: Osaka leads by 26 points.
Getting around. Osaka 90, Wellington 68: Osaka leads by 22 points.
Shopping & style. Osaka 80, Wellington 42: Osaka leads by 38 points.
Affordability. Osaka 60, Wellington 33: Osaka leads by 27 points.
Live music & performing arts. Osaka 66, Wellington 56: Osaka leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Osaka 66, Wellington 30: Osaka leads by 36 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Osaka and Wellington.

Your match

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

Osaka
Best match
73match

Wins on day trips and shopping with your weighting.

Wellington
49match

Wins on nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Osaka in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
175 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
14 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

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
OsakaWellington

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. Osaka: 1991-2020 normals, Osaka (1.8 km from centre). Wellington: 1961-1990 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Wellington Aerodrome Aws (5.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureOsakaWellington
Official languageJapaneseEnglish, New Zealand Sign Language, Māori
CurrencyYen (JPY)New Zealand Dollar (NZD)
SocketsAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the regionI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+9UTC+12, UTC+13 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 110, fire 119111
Elevation20 m0 m
Main airportKansai International Airport (KIX)38 km from centre62 non-stop destinationsWellington International Airport (WLG)5 km from centre20 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureOsakaWellington
City population2,751,862216,200
People per km²12,340487
Museums within 10 km4412
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km60
Swim season, months above 21 °C5 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

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