VacationSelector
White sand and turquoise water at Pensacola Beach, Pensacola
PensacolaWhite sand and turquoise water at Pensacola Beach
The red cable car above Wellington, Wellington
WellingtonThe red cable car above Wellington

Photos: Pensacola by Jason Meredith, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Wellington by lumoplank, CC0.

Pensacola 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 Pensacola for

  • beaches
  • prices
  • day trips

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

Choose Wellington for

  • getting around
  • live music and the arts
  • 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. Pensacola 84, Wellington 33: Pensacola leads by 51 points.
Food & drink. Pensacola 45, Wellington 62: Wellington leads by 17 points.
Culture & sights. Pensacola 45, Wellington 44: Pensacola leads by 1 points.
Nightlife. Pensacola 42, Wellington 45: Wellington leads by 3 points.
Nature & outdoors. Pensacola 62, Wellington 78: Wellington leads by 16 points.
Day trips. Pensacola 45, Wellington 40: Pensacola leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Pensacola and Wellington are level on 62.
Getting around. Pensacola 18, Wellington 68: Wellington leads by 50 points.
Shopping & style. Pensacola 28, Wellington 42: Wellington leads by 14 points.
Affordability. Pensacola 44, Wellington 33: Pensacola leads by 11 points.
Live music & performing arts. Pensacola 36, Wellington 56: Wellington leads by 20 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Pensacola and Wellington are level on 30.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Pensacola and Wellington.

Your match

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

Pensacola
45match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

Wellington
Best match
49match

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

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Pensacola in July

33 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
200 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
PensacolaWellington

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. Pensacola: 1991-2020 normals, Pensacola / Pleasant Grove (12.3 km from centre). Wellington: 1961-1990 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Wellington Aerodrome Aws (5.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePensacolaWellington
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-6, UTC-5 in summerUTC+12, UTC+13 in summer
Emergency number911111
Elevation31 m0 m
Main airportPensacola International Airport (PNS)6 km from centre27 non-stop destinationsWellington International Airport (WLG)5 km from centre20 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasurePensacolaWellington
City population54,312216,200
People per km²515487
Museums within 10 km512
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C7 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

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