VacationSelector
Stortorget in Gamla stan, Stockholm
StockholmStortorget in Gamla stan
The red cable car above Wellington, Wellington
WellingtonThe red cable car above Wellington

Photos: Stockholm by Jorge Franganillo, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Wellington by lumoplank, CC0.

Stockholm 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 Stockholm for

  • culture and sights
  • day trips
  • shopping

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

Choose Wellington for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • prices

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. Stockholm 40, Wellington 33: Stockholm leads by 7 points.
Food & drink. Stockholm 64, Wellington 62: Stockholm leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Stockholm 77, Wellington 44: Stockholm leads by 33 points.
Nightlife. Stockholm 57, Wellington 45: Stockholm leads by 12 points.
Nature & outdoors. Stockholm 72, Wellington 78: Wellington leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Stockholm 68, Wellington 40: Stockholm leads by 28 points.
Good for families. Stockholm 82, Wellington 62: Stockholm leads by 20 points.
Getting around. Stockholm 84, Wellington 68: Stockholm leads by 16 points.
Shopping & style. Stockholm 70, Wellington 42: Stockholm leads by 28 points.
Affordability. Stockholm 30, Wellington 33: Wellington leads by 3 points.
Live music & performing arts. Stockholm 65, Wellington 56: Stockholm leads by 9 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Stockholm 56, Wellington 30: Stockholm leads by 26 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Stockholm
Best match
64match

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

Wellington
49match

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

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Stockholm in July

23 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
65 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
16 °Csea
18 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
StockholmWellington

Where the figures come from

Stockholm 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.

Stockholm's sunshine is measured 26 km from the centre, at Stockholm Observatoriet.

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

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Stockholm: 2003-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Stockholm Bromma Airport (7.1 km from centre). Wellington: 1961-1990 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Wellington Aerodrome Aws (5.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureStockholmWellington
Official languageSwedishEnglish, New Zealand Sign Language, Māori
CurrencySwedish Krona (SEK)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
Elevation22 m0 m
Main airportStockholm-Arlanda Airport (ARN)36 km from centre174 non-stop destinationsWellington International Airport (WLG)5 km from centre20 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureStockholmWellington
City population984,748216,200
People per km²5,260487
Museums within 10 km26612
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km30
Swim season, months above 21 °CNoneNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Stockholm or Wellington somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national 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). 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.