VacationSelector
Whitehall, Henry Flagler's mansion, now the Flagler Museum, Palm Beach
Palm BeachWhitehall, Henry Flagler's mansion, now the Flagler Museum
The red cable car above Wellington, Wellington
WellingtonThe red cable car above Wellington

Photos: Palm Beach by Khowald, CC BY 4.0, cropped; Wellington by lumoplank, CC0.

Palm Beach 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 Palm Beach for

  • beaches
  • wellness
  • shopping

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

Choose Wellington for

  • getting around
  • prices
  • 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. Palm Beach 82, Wellington 33: Palm Beach leads by 49 points.
Food & drink. Palm Beach 47, Wellington 62: Wellington leads by 15 points.
Culture & sights. Palm Beach 45, Wellington 44: Palm Beach leads by 1 points.
Nightlife. Palm Beach 32, Wellington 45: Wellington leads by 13 points.
Nature & outdoors. Palm Beach 58, Wellington 78: Wellington leads by 20 points.
Day trips. Palm Beach 55, Wellington 40: Palm Beach leads by 15 points.
Good for families. Palm Beach and Wellington are level on 62.
Getting around. Palm Beach 32, Wellington 68: Wellington leads by 36 points.
Shopping & style. Palm Beach 66, Wellington 42: Palm Beach leads by 24 points.
Affordability. Palm Beach 12, Wellington 33: Wellington leads by 21 points.
Live music & performing arts. Palm Beach 45, Wellington 56: Wellington leads by 11 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Palm Beach 55, Wellington 30: Palm Beach leads by 25 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Palm Beach and Wellington.

Your match

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

Too close to call, level with your weighting

Palm Beach
49match

Wins on beaches and wellness with your weighting.

Wellington
49match

Wins on getting around 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.

Palm Beach in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
145 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
29 °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

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Palm BeachWellington

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. Palm Beach: 1991-2020 normals, Palm Beach International (6.8 km from centre). Wellington: 1961-1990 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Wellington Aerodrome Aws (5.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePalm BeachWellington
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
Elevation2 m0 m
Main airportPresident Donald J. Trump International Airport (DJT)6 km from centre42 non-stop destinationsWellington International Airport (WLG)5 km from centre20 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasurePalm BeachWellington
City population9,245216,200
People per km²322487
Museums within 10 km412
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

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