VacationSelector
Cliff-top hotels above the harbour, Sorrento
SorrentoCliff-top hotels above the harbour
The red cable car above Wellington, Wellington
WellingtonThe red cable car above Wellington

Photos: Sorrento by Berthold Werner, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Wellington by lumoplank, CC0.

Sorrento 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 Sorrento for

  • day trips
  • beaches
  • wellness

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

Choose Wellington for

  • live music and the arts
  • families
  • nightlife

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. Sorrento 60, Wellington 33: Sorrento leads by 27 points.
Food & drink. Sorrento 60, Wellington 62: Wellington leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Sorrento 32, Wellington 44: Wellington leads by 12 points.
Nightlife. Sorrento 28, Wellington 45: Wellington leads by 17 points.
Nature & outdoors. Sorrento 80, Wellington 78: Sorrento leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Sorrento 95, Wellington 40: Sorrento leads by 55 points.
Good for families. Sorrento 42, Wellington 62: Wellington leads by 20 points.
Getting around. Sorrento 58, Wellington 68: Wellington leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Sorrento 38, Wellington 42: Wellington leads by 4 points.
Affordability. Sorrento 32, Wellington 33: Wellington leads by 1 points.
Live music & performing arts. Sorrento 20, Wellington 56: Wellington leads by 36 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Sorrento 48, Wellington 30: Sorrento leads by 18 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Sorrento and Wellington.

Your match

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

Too close to call, level with your weighting

Sorrento
49match

Wins on day trips and beaches with your weighting.

Wellington
49match

Wins on live music and the arts 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.

Sorrento in July

29 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
21 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
25 °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°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
SorrentoWellington

Where the figures come from

Sorrento has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

Sorrento's sunshine is measured 54 km from the centre, at Grazzanise.

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

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Sorrento: 2005-2025 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Capri (17 km from centre). Wellington: 1961-1990 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Wellington Aerodrome Aws (5.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSorrentoWellington
Official languageItalianEnglish, New Zealand Sign Language, Māori
CurrencyEuro (EUR)New Zealand Dollar (NZD)
SocketsCFL230 V, 50 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+12, UTC+13 in summer
Emergency number112111
Elevation50 m0 m
Main airportNaples International Airport (NAP)30 km from centre131 non-stop destinationsWellington International Airport (WLG)5 km from centre20 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureSorrentoWellington
City population15,407216,200
People per km²1,541487
Museums within 10 km612
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km50
Swim season, months above 21 °C5 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

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