VacationSelector
Punta del Este
The red cable car above Wellington, Wellington
WellingtonThe red cable car above Wellington

Photos: Wellington by lumoplank, CC0.

Punta del Este 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 Punta del Este for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Punta del Este’s own page.

Choose Wellington for

  • live music and the arts
  • getting around
  • 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. Punta del Este 72, Wellington 33: Punta del Este leads by 39 points.
Food & drink. Punta del Este 45, Wellington 62: Wellington leads by 17 points.
Culture & sights. Punta del Este 22, Wellington 44: Wellington leads by 22 points.
Nightlife. Punta del Este 60, Wellington 45: Punta del Este leads by 15 points.
Nature & outdoors. Punta del Este 55, Wellington 78: Wellington leads by 23 points.
Day trips. Punta del Este 45, Wellington 40: Punta del Este leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Punta del Este 55, Wellington 62: Wellington leads by 7 points.
Getting around. Punta del Este 35, Wellington 68: Wellington leads by 33 points.
Shopping & style. Punta del Este and Wellington are level on 42.
Affordability. Punta del Este 20, Wellington 33: Wellington leads by 13 points.
Live music & performing arts. Punta del Este 22, Wellington 56: Wellington leads by 34 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Punta del Este 32, Wellington 30: Punta del Este leads by 2 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Punta del Este
42match

Wins on beaches and nightlife with your weighting.

Wellington
Best match
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.

Punta del Este in July

15 °Cdaytime high
6 °Cnight-time low
101 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
12 °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°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
Punta del EsteWellington

Where the figures come from

Punta del Este's temperatures are measured 79 km from the centre, at Rocha.

Punta del Este 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. Punta del Este: 1991-2020 normals, Rocha (78.5 km from centre). Wellington: 1961-1990 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Wellington Aerodrome Aws (5.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePunta del EsteWellington
Official language-English, New Zealand Sign Language, Māori
CurrencyPeso Uruguayo (UYU)New Zealand Dollar (NZD)
SocketsCFIL230 V, 50 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-3UTC+12, UTC+13 in summer
Emergency number911111
Elevation11 m0 m
Main airportCapitan Corbeta CA Curbelo International Airport (PDP)18 km from centre6 non-stop destinationsWellington International Airport (WLG)5 km from centre20 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year15 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasurePunta del EsteWellington
City population9,277216,200
People per km²455487
Museums within 10 km512
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C3 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Punta del Este 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). 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.