VacationSelector
The Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco
San FranciscoThe Golden Gate Bridge
The red cable car above Wellington, Wellington
WellingtonThe red cable car above Wellington

Photos: San Francisco by Elijah Cobb, Pexels License; Wellington by lumoplank, CC0.

San Francisco 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 San Francisco for

  • day trips
  • culture and sights
  • food and drink

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

Choose Wellington for

  • prices
  • beaches

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. San Francisco 25, Wellington 33: Wellington leads by 8 points.
Food & drink. San Francisco 82, Wellington 62: San Francisco leads by 20 points.
Culture & sights. San Francisco 68, Wellington 44: San Francisco leads by 24 points.
Nightlife. San Francisco 58, Wellington 45: San Francisco leads by 13 points.
Nature & outdoors. San Francisco 80, Wellington 78: San Francisco leads by 2 points.
Day trips. San Francisco 72, Wellington 40: San Francisco leads by 32 points.
Good for families. San Francisco 66, Wellington 62: San Francisco leads by 4 points.
Getting around. San Francisco 70, Wellington 68: San Francisco leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. San Francisco 58, Wellington 42: San Francisco leads by 16 points.
Affordability. San Francisco 14, Wellington 33: Wellington leads by 19 points.
Live music & performing arts. San Francisco 76, Wellington 56: San Francisco leads by 20 points.
Wellness & relaxation. San Francisco 42, Wellington 30: San Francisco leads by 12 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

San Francisco
Best match
59match

Wins on day trips and culture and sights with your weighting.

Wellington
49match

Wins on prices 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.

San Francisco in July

22 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
13 °Csea
15 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

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
San FranciscoWellington

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. San Francisco: 1981-2010 normals, Alameda Naval Air Station (9.1 km from centre). Wellington: 1961-1990 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Wellington Aerodrome Aws (5.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSan FranciscoWellington
Official language-English, New Zealand Sign Language, Māori
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)New Zealand Dollar (NZD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-8, UTC-7 in summerUTC+12, UTC+13 in summer
Emergency number911111
Elevation16 m0 m
Main airportSan Francisco International Airport (SFO)18 km from centre142 non-stop destinationsWellington International Airport (WLG)5 km from centre20 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureSan FranciscoWellington
City population873,965216,200
People per km²1,455487
Museums within 10 km5112
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °CNoneNone

Where else could you go?

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