VacationSelector
The lighthouse in the Paphos Archaeological Park, Paphos
PaphosThe lighthouse in the Paphos Archaeological Park
The red cable car above Wellington, Wellington
WellingtonThe red cable car above Wellington

Photos: Paphos by Nikodem Nijaki, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Wellington by lumoplank, CC0.

Paphos 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 Paphos for

  • beaches
  • day trips
  • prices

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

Choose Wellington for

  • live music and the arts
  • getting around
  • 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. Paphos 76, Wellington 33: Paphos leads by 43 points.
Food & drink. Paphos 45, Wellington 62: Wellington leads by 17 points.
Culture & sights. Paphos 62, Wellington 44: Paphos leads by 18 points.
Nightlife. Paphos 38, Wellington 45: Wellington leads by 7 points.
Nature & outdoors. Paphos 70, Wellington 78: Wellington leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Paphos 64, Wellington 40: Paphos leads by 24 points.
Good for families. Paphos 68, Wellington 62: Paphos leads by 6 points.
Getting around. Paphos 40, Wellington 68: Wellington leads by 28 points.
Shopping & style. Paphos 25, Wellington 42: Wellington leads by 17 points.
Affordability. Paphos 52, Wellington 33: Paphos leads by 19 points.
Live music & performing arts. Paphos 22, Wellington 56: Wellington leads by 34 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Paphos 42, Wellington 30: Paphos leads by 12 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Paphos
50match

Wins on beaches and day trips with your weighting.

Wellington
49match

Wins on live music and the arts and getting around with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Paphos in July

30 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
27 °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

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
PaphosWellington

Where the figures come from

Paphos has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

Wellington's sunshine is measured 47 km from the centre, at Paraparaumu Aerodrome.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Paphos: 1991-2020 normals, Paphos Airport (8.4 km from centre). Wellington: 1961-1990 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Wellington Aerodrome Aws (5.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePaphosWellington
Official languageTurkish, Greek, Modern GreekEnglish, New Zealand Sign Language, Māori
CurrencyEuro (EUR)New Zealand Dollar (NZD)
SocketsG240 V, 50 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+2, UTC+3 in summerUTC+12, UTC+13 in summer
Emergency number112111
Elevation72 m0 m
Main airportPaphos International Airport (PFO)8 km from centre59 non-stop destinationsWellington International Airport (WLG)5 km from centre20 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year17 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasurePaphosWellington
City population35,961216,200
People per km²1,987487
Museums within 10 km412
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °C6 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Paphos 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). 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. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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.