VacationSelector
The church of San Francisco under a blue sky, Quito
QuitoThe church of San Francisco under a blue sky
The red cable car above Wellington, Wellington
WellingtonThe red cable car above Wellington

Photos: Quito by Bernard Gagnon, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Wellington by lumoplank, CC0.

Quito 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 Quito for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • day trips

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

Choose Wellington for

  • families
  • beaches
  • getting around

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. Quito 5, Wellington 33: Wellington leads by 28 points.
Food & drink. Quito 54, Wellington 62: Wellington leads by 8 points.
Culture & sights. Quito 77, Wellington 44: Quito leads by 33 points.
Nightlife. Quito 40, Wellington 45: Wellington leads by 5 points.
Nature & outdoors. Quito 86, Wellington 78: Quito leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Quito 55, Wellington 40: Quito leads by 15 points.
Good for families. Quito 32, Wellington 62: Wellington leads by 30 points.
Getting around. Quito 45, Wellington 68: Wellington leads by 23 points.
Shopping & style. Quito 40, Wellington 42: Wellington leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Quito 78, Wellington 33: Quito leads by 45 points.
Live music & performing arts. Quito 38, Wellington 56: Wellington leads by 18 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Quito 44, Wellington 30: Quito leads by 14 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Quito 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

Quito
50match

Wins on prices and culture and sights with your weighting.

Wellington
49match

Wins on families and beaches with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Quito in July

18 °Cdaytime high
5 °Cnight-time low
32 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
No seasea
12 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°5°10°15°20°25°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
QuitoWellington

Where the figures come from

Quito's station stands 208 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer than the figures say.

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

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Quito: 1961-1990 normals, Izobamba-Santa Catalina (16.8 km from centre). Wellington: 1961-1990 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Wellington Aerodrome Aws (5.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureQuitoWellington
Official languageSpanish, Shuar, Northern QuichuaEnglish, New Zealand Sign Language, Māori
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)New Zealand Dollar (NZD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+12, UTC+13 in summer
Emergency number911111
Elevation2,850 m0 m
Main airportMariscal Sucre International Airport (UIO)20 km from centre22 non-stop destinationsWellington International Airport (WLG)5 km from centre20 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureQuitoWellington
City population1,763,275216,200
People per km²4,735487
Museums within 10 km1612
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °C-None

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Quito 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. 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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.