VacationSelector
The House of the Blackheads at dusk, Riga
RigaThe House of the Blackheads at dusk
The red cable car above Wellington, Wellington
WellingtonThe red cable car above Wellington

Photos: Riga by Diliff, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Wellington by lumoplank, CC0.

Riga 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 Riga for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • day trips

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

Choose Wellington for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • families
  • 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. Riga 40, Wellington 33: Riga leads by 7 points.
Food & drink. Riga 52, Wellington 62: Wellington leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. Riga 66, Wellington 44: Riga leads by 22 points.
Nightlife. Riga 52, Wellington 45: Riga leads by 7 points.
Nature & outdoors. Riga 55, Wellington 78: Wellington leads by 23 points.
Day trips. Riga 60, Wellington 40: Riga leads by 20 points.
Good for families. Riga 50, Wellington 62: Wellington leads by 12 points.
Getting around. Riga and Wellington are level on 68.
Shopping & style. Riga 45, Wellington 42: Riga leads by 3 points.
Affordability. Riga 62, Wellington 33: Riga leads by 29 points.
Live music & performing arts. Riga 65, Wellington 56: Riga leads by 9 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Riga 50, Wellington 30: Riga leads by 20 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Riga
Best match
55match

Wins on prices and culture and sights with your weighting.

Wellington
49match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and families with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Riga in July

24 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
87 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
18 °Csea
17 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

-5°0°5°10°15°20°25°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
RigaWellington

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. Riga: 1991-2020 normals, Riga (4.1 km from centre). Wellington: 1961-1990 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Wellington Aerodrome Aws (5.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureRigaWellington
Official languageLatvianEnglish, New Zealand Sign Language, Māori
CurrencyEuro (EUR)New Zealand Dollar (NZD)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+2, UTC+3 in summerUTC+12, UTC+13 in summer
Emergency number112111
Elevation6 m0 m
Main airportRiga International Airport (RIX)9 km from centre93 non-stop destinationsWellington International Airport (WLG)5 km from centre20 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-12 days

By the numbers

MeasureRigaWellington
City population588,911216,200
People per km²-487
Museums within 10 km1212
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °CNoneNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Riga 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. 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. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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.