VacationSelector
The top of the Mountaintop Express lift on Vail Mountain, Vail
VailThe top of the Mountaintop Express lift on Vail Mountain
The red cable car above Wellington, Wellington
WellingtonThe red cable car above Wellington

Photos: Vail by DReifGalaxyM31, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Wellington by lumoplank, CC0.

Vail 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 Vail for

  • wellness
  • nature and the outdoors
  • day trips

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

Choose Wellington for

  • culture and sights
  • beaches
  • 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. Vail 5, Wellington 33: Wellington leads by 28 points.
Food & drink. Vail 35, Wellington 62: Wellington leads by 27 points.
Culture & sights. Vail 10, Wellington 44: Wellington leads by 34 points.
Nightlife. Vail 30, Wellington 45: Wellington leads by 15 points.
Nature & outdoors. Vail 92, Wellington 78: Vail leads by 14 points.
Day trips. Vail 45, Wellington 40: Vail leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Vail 55, Wellington 62: Wellington leads by 7 points.
Getting around. Vail 62, Wellington 68: Wellington leads by 6 points.
Shopping & style. Vail 35, Wellington 42: Wellington leads by 7 points.
Affordability. Vail 5, Wellington 33: Wellington leads by 28 points.
Live music & performing arts. Vail 42, Wellington 56: Wellington leads by 14 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Vail 48, Wellington 30: Vail leads by 18 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Vail
39match

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

Wellington
Best match
49match

Wins on culture and sights and beaches with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Vail in July

29 °Cdaytime high
9 °Cnight-time low
35 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
VailWellington

Where the figures come from

Vail's temperatures are measured 47 km from the centre, at Kremmling.

Vail's station stands 186 m below the city centre, so the centre is likely a little cooler than the figures say.

Vail 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. Vail: 2006-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Kremmling (46.5 km from centre). Wellington: 1961-1990 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Wellington Aerodrome Aws (5.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureVailWellington
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
Elevation2,445 m0 m
Main airportEagle County Regional Airport (EGE)48 km from centre16 non-stop destinationsWellington International Airport (WLG)5 km from centre20 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureVailWellington
City population4,835216,200
People per km²400487
Museums within 10 km112
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 Vail 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.