VacationSelector
The old railway depot in the snow, Steamboat Springs
Steamboat SpringsThe old railway depot in the snow
The red cable car above Wellington, Wellington
WellingtonThe red cable car above Wellington

Photos: Steamboat Springs by Jeffrey Beall, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Wellington by lumoplank, CC0.

Steamboat Springs 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 Steamboat Springs for

  • wellness
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Wellington for

  • food and drink
  • culture and sights
  • day trips

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. Steamboat Springs 7, Wellington 33: Wellington leads by 26 points.
Food & drink. Steamboat Springs 30, Wellington 62: Wellington leads by 32 points.
Culture & sights. Steamboat Springs 14, Wellington 44: Wellington leads by 30 points.
Nightlife. Steamboat Springs 20, Wellington 45: Wellington leads by 25 points.
Nature & outdoors. Steamboat Springs 88, Wellington 78: Steamboat Springs leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Steamboat Springs 12, Wellington 40: Wellington leads by 28 points.
Good for families. Steamboat Springs and Wellington are level on 62.
Getting around. Steamboat Springs 46, Wellington 68: Wellington leads by 22 points.
Shopping & style. Steamboat Springs 22, Wellington 42: Wellington leads by 20 points.
Affordability. Steamboat Springs 17, Wellington 33: Wellington leads by 16 points.
Live music & performing arts. Steamboat Springs 28, Wellington 56: Wellington leads by 28 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Steamboat Springs 70, Wellington 30: Steamboat Springs leads by 40 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Steamboat Springs
35match

Wins on wellness and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Wellington
Best match
49match

Wins on food and drink and culture and sights with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Steamboat Springs in July

28 °Cdaytime high
10 °Cnight-time low
31 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
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

-10°0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
Steamboat SpringsWellington

Where the figures come from

Steamboat Springs 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.

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

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Steamboat Springs: 2011-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Steamboat Springs / Steamboat Ii (5.5 km from centre). Wellington: 1961-1990 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Wellington Aerodrome Aws (5.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSteamboat SpringsWellington
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-7, UTC-6 in summerUTC+12, UTC+13 in summer
Emergency number911111
Elevation2,052 m0 m
Main airportYampa Valley Airport (HDN)33 km from centre17 non-stop destinationsWellington International Airport (WLG)5 km from centre20 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureSteamboat SpringsWellington
City population13,224216,200
People per km²503487
Museums within 10 km012
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C-None

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Steamboat Springs 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. 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.