VacationSelector
The Opera House on the fjord, Oslo
OsloThe Opera House on the fjord
The red cable car above Wellington, Wellington
WellingtonThe red cable car above Wellington

Photos: Oslo by Beata May, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Wellington by lumoplank, CC0.

Oslo 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 Oslo for

  • wellness
  • culture and sights
  • getting around

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

Choose Wellington for

  • prices
  • food and drink

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. Oslo 36, Wellington 33: Oslo leads by 3 points.
Food & drink. Oslo 55, Wellington 62: Wellington leads by 7 points.
Culture & sights. Oslo 66, Wellington 44: Oslo leads by 22 points.
Nightlife. Oslo 48, Wellington 45: Oslo leads by 3 points.
Nature & outdoors. Oslo 82, Wellington 78: Oslo leads by 4 points.
Day trips. Oslo 52, Wellington 40: Oslo leads by 12 points.
Good for families. Oslo 63, Wellington 62: Oslo leads by 1 points.
Getting around. Oslo 85, Wellington 68: Oslo leads by 17 points.
Shopping & style. Oslo 50, Wellington 42: Oslo leads by 8 points.
Affordability. Oslo 14, Wellington 33: Wellington leads by 19 points.
Live music & performing arts. Oslo 62, Wellington 56: Oslo leads by 6 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Oslo 60, Wellington 30: Oslo leads by 30 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Oslo
Best match
56match

Wins on wellness and culture and sights with your weighting.

Wellington
49match

Wins on prices and food and drink with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Oslo in July

23 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
86 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
18 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°5°10°15°20°25°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
OsloWellington

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. Oslo: 1991-2020 normals, Oslo-Blindern (4.3 km from centre). Wellington: 1961-1990 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Wellington Aerodrome Aws (5.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureOsloWellington
Official languageNorwegian, Nynorsk, Bokmål, SámiEnglish, New Zealand Sign Language, Māori
CurrencyNorwegian Krone (NOK)New Zealand Dollar (NZD)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+12, UTC+13 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 112, ambulance 113, fire 110111
Elevation23 m0 m
Main airportOslo-Gardermoen International Airport (OSL)37 km from centre147 non-stop destinationsWellington International Airport (WLG)5 km from centre20 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureOsloWellington
City population717,710216,200
People per km²-487
Museums within 10 km6012
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °CNoneNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Oslo 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). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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.