VacationSelector
St. Petersburg, Florida
The red cable car above Wellington, Wellington
WellingtonThe red cable car above Wellington

Photos: Wellington by lumoplank, CC0.

St. Petersburg, Florida 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 St. Petersburg, Florida for

  • beaches
  • day trips
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on St. Petersburg, Florida’s own page.

Choose Wellington for

  • getting around
  • nature and the outdoors
  • live music and the arts

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. St. Petersburg, Florida 85, Wellington 33: St. Petersburg, Florida leads by 52 points.
Food & drink. St. Petersburg, Florida 52, Wellington 62: Wellington leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. St. Petersburg, Florida 52, Wellington 44: St. Petersburg, Florida leads by 8 points.
Nightlife. St. Petersburg, Florida 44, Wellington 45: Wellington leads by 1 points.
Nature & outdoors. St. Petersburg, Florida 58, Wellington 78: Wellington leads by 20 points.
Day trips. St. Petersburg, Florida 55, Wellington 40: St. Petersburg, Florida leads by 15 points.
Good for families. St. Petersburg, Florida 70, Wellington 62: St. Petersburg, Florida leads by 8 points.
Getting around. St. Petersburg, Florida 33, Wellington 68: Wellington leads by 35 points.
Shopping & style. St. Petersburg, Florida 38, Wellington 42: Wellington leads by 4 points.
Affordability. St. Petersburg, Florida 35, Wellington 33: St. Petersburg, Florida leads by 2 points.
Live music & performing arts. St. Petersburg, Florida 42, Wellington 56: Wellington leads by 14 points.
Wellness & relaxation. St. Petersburg, Florida 40, Wellington 30: St. Petersburg, Florida leads by 10 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: St. Petersburg, Florida and Wellington.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

St. Petersburg, Florida
50match

Wins on beaches and day trips with your weighting.

Wellington
49match

Wins on getting around 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.

St. Petersburg, Florida in July

32 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
197 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
30 °Csea
14 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

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
St. Petersburg, FloridaWellington

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. St. Petersburg, Florida: 1998-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Saint Petersburg (1.6 km from centre). Wellington: 1961-1990 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Wellington Aerodrome Aws (5.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSt. Petersburg, FloridaWellington
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-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC+12, UTC+13 in summer
Emergency number911111
Elevation134 m0 m
Main airportSt. Petersburg Clearwater International Airport (PIE)16 km from centre60 non-stop destinationsWellington International Airport (WLG)5 km from centre20 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureSt. Petersburg, FloridaWellington
City population258,308216,200
People per km²725487
Museums within 10 km1312
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C8 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow St. Petersburg, Florida 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.