VacationSelector
Painted colonial houses in the Pelourinho, Salvador
SalvadorPainted colonial houses in the Pelourinho
The red cable car above Wellington, Wellington
WellingtonThe red cable car above Wellington

Photos: Salvador by Paul R. Burley, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Wellington by lumoplank, CC0.

Salvador 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 Salvador for

  • beaches
  • prices
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Wellington for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • getting around
  • families

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. Salvador 84, Wellington 33: Salvador leads by 51 points.
Food & drink. Salvador 66, Wellington 62: Salvador leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. Salvador 74, Wellington 44: Salvador leads by 30 points.
Nightlife. Salvador 70, Wellington 45: Salvador leads by 25 points.
Nature & outdoors. Salvador 52, Wellington 78: Wellington leads by 26 points.
Day trips. Salvador 56, Wellington 40: Salvador leads by 16 points.
Good for families. Salvador 42, Wellington 62: Wellington leads by 20 points.
Getting around. Salvador 42, Wellington 68: Wellington leads by 26 points.
Shopping & style. Salvador and Wellington are level on 42.
Affordability. Salvador 70, Wellington 33: Salvador leads by 37 points.
Live music & performing arts. Salvador 63, Wellington 56: Salvador leads by 7 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Salvador 32, Wellington 30: Salvador leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Salvador and Wellington.

Your match

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

Salvador
Best match
58match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

Wellington
49match

Wins on nature and the outdoors 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.

Salvador in July

27 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
201 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
26 °Csea
11 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

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
SalvadorWellington

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. Salvador: 1991-2020 normals, Salvador (4.5 km from centre). Wellington: 1961-1990 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Wellington Aerodrome Aws (5.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSalvadorWellington
Official languagePortugueseEnglish, New Zealand Sign Language, Māori
CurrencyBrazilian Real (BRL)New Zealand Dollar (NZD)
SocketsCN60 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-3UTC+12, UTC+13 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 190, ambulance 192, fire 193111
Elevation8 m0 m
Main airportDeputado Luiz Eduardo Magalhães International Airport (SSA)20 km from centre31 non-stop destinationsWellington International Airport (WLG)5 km from centre20 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureSalvadorWellington
City population2,417,678216,200
People per km²3,489487
Museums within 10 km4912
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

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