VacationSelector
La Concha beach and Monte Urgull, San Sebastian
San SebastianLa Concha beach and Monte Urgull
The red cable car above Wellington, Wellington
WellingtonThe red cable car above Wellington

Photos: San Sebastian by Guérin Nicolas, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Wellington by lumoplank, CC0.

San Sebastian 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 Sebastian for

  • day trips
  • beaches
  • food and drink

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

Choose Wellington for

  • live music and the arts
  • nature and the outdoors
  • shopping

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 Sebastian 68, Wellington 33: San Sebastian leads by 35 points.
Food & drink. San Sebastian 88, Wellington 62: San Sebastian leads by 26 points.
Culture & sights. San Sebastian 52, Wellington 44: San Sebastian leads by 8 points.
Nightlife. San Sebastian 44, Wellington 45: Wellington leads by 1 points.
Nature & outdoors. San Sebastian 72, Wellington 78: Wellington leads by 6 points.
Day trips. San Sebastian 80, Wellington 40: San Sebastian leads by 40 points.
Good for families. San Sebastian 66, Wellington 62: San Sebastian leads by 4 points.
Getting around. San Sebastian 80, Wellington 68: San Sebastian leads by 12 points.
Shopping & style. San Sebastian 40, Wellington 42: Wellington leads by 2 points.
Affordability. San Sebastian 32, Wellington 33: Wellington leads by 1 points.
Live music & performing arts. San Sebastian 45, Wellington 56: Wellington leads by 11 points.
Wellness & relaxation. San Sebastian 50, Wellington 30: San Sebastian leads by 20 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

San Sebastian
Best match
60match

Wins on day trips and beaches with your weighting.

Wellington
49match

Wins on live music and the arts and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

San Sebastian in July

22 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
92 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
21 °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

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
San SebastianWellington

Where the figures come from

San Sebastian's station stands 252 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. San Sebastian: 1991-2020 normals, San Sebastian / Igueldo (6.1 km from centre). Wellington: 1961-1990 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Wellington Aerodrome Aws (5.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSan SebastianWellington
Official languageSpanishEnglish, New Zealand Sign Language, Māori
CurrencyEuro (EUR)New Zealand Dollar (NZD)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+12, UTC+13 in summer
Emergency number112111
Elevation6 m0 m
Main airportSan Sebastián Airport (EAS)16 km from centre11 non-stop destinationsWellington International Airport (WLG)5 km from centre20 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureSan SebastianWellington
City population189,866216,200
People per km²3,118487
Museums within 10 km1412
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km30
Swim season, months above 21 °C2 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

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