VacationSelector
Elizabeth Quay and the centre of Perth, Perth
PerthElizabeth Quay and the centre of Perth
The red cable car above Wellington, Wellington
WellingtonThe red cable car above Wellington

Photos: Perth by Samuel Wiki, CC BY 4.0, cropped; Wellington by lumoplank, CC0.

Perth 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 Perth for

  • beaches
  • families
  • day trips

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

Choose Wellington for

  • getting around
  • nature and the outdoors
  • live music and the arts

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. Perth 86, Wellington 33: Perth leads by 53 points.
Food & drink. Perth 58, Wellington 62: Wellington leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. Perth 42, Wellington 44: Wellington leads by 2 points.
Nightlife. Perth 42, Wellington 45: Wellington leads by 3 points.
Nature & outdoors. Perth 72, Wellington 78: Wellington leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Perth 48, Wellington 40: Perth leads by 8 points.
Good for families. Perth 74, Wellington 62: Perth leads by 12 points.
Getting around. Perth 55, Wellington 68: Wellington leads by 13 points.
Shopping & style. Perth 44, Wellington 42: Perth leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Perth 28, Wellington 33: Wellington leads by 5 points.
Live music & performing arts. Perth 50, Wellington 56: Wellington leads by 6 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Perth 38, Wellington 30: Perth leads by 8 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Perth and Wellington.

Your match

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

Perth
Best match
53match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

Wellington
49match

Wins on getting around and 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.

Perth in July

19 °Cdaytime high
8 °Cnight-time low
145 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
20 °Csea
10 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

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
PerthWellington

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. Perth: 1991-2020 normals, Perth (7.3 km from centre). Wellington: 1961-1990 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Wellington Aerodrome Aws (5.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePerthWellington
Official languageEnglishEnglish, New Zealand Sign Language, Māori
CurrencyAustralian Dollar (AUD)New Zealand Dollar (NZD)
SocketsI230 V, 50 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+8UTC+12, UTC+13 in summer
Emergency number000111
Elevation2 m0 m
Main airportPerth International Airport (PER)10 km from centre49 non-stop destinationsWellington International Airport (WLG)5 km from centre20 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasurePerthWellington
City population2,141,834216,200
People per km²334487
Museums within 10 km1512
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
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 Perth 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.