VacationSelector
The beach and the oceanfront hotels from the fishing pier, Virginia Beach
Virginia BeachThe beach and the oceanfront hotels from the fishing pier
The red cable car above Wellington, Wellington
WellingtonThe red cable car above Wellington

Photos: Virginia Beach by SchuminWeb, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Wellington by lumoplank, CC0.

Virginia Beach 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 Virginia Beach for

  • beaches
  • day trips
  • families

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

Choose Wellington for

  • getting around
  • nature and the outdoors
  • food and drink

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. Virginia Beach 77, Wellington 33: Virginia Beach leads by 44 points.
Food & drink. Virginia Beach 42, Wellington 62: Wellington leads by 20 points.
Culture & sights. Virginia Beach 30, Wellington 44: Wellington leads by 14 points.
Nightlife. Virginia Beach 37, Wellington 45: Wellington leads by 8 points.
Nature & outdoors. Virginia Beach 56, Wellington 78: Wellington leads by 22 points.
Day trips. Virginia Beach 64, Wellington 40: Virginia Beach leads by 24 points.
Good for families. Virginia Beach 75, Wellington 62: Virginia Beach leads by 13 points.
Getting around. Virginia Beach 27, Wellington 68: Wellington leads by 41 points.
Shopping & style. Virginia Beach 32, Wellington 42: Wellington leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Virginia Beach 40, Wellington 33: Virginia Beach leads by 7 points.
Live music & performing arts. Virginia Beach 38, Wellington 56: Wellington leads by 18 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Virginia Beach 32, Wellington 30: Virginia Beach leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Virginia Beach and Wellington.

Your match

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

Virginia Beach
46match

Wins on beaches and day trips with your weighting.

Wellington
Best match
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.

Virginia Beach in July

31 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
152 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
25 °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

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
Virginia BeachWellington

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. Virginia Beach: 1991-2020 normals, Virginia Beach / Gatewood Park (5.7 km from centre). Wellington: 1961-1990 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Wellington Aerodrome Aws (5.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureVirginia BeachWellington
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
Elevation7 m0 m
Main airportNorfolk International Airport (ORF)20 km from centre42 non-stop destinationsWellington International Airport (WLG)5 km from centre20 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureVirginia BeachWellington
City population459,470216,200
People per km²-487
Museums within 10 km212
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C4 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Virginia Beach 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.