VacationSelector
Castle Square and the Royal Castle, Warsaw
WarsawCastle Square and the Royal Castle
The red cable car above Wellington, Wellington
WellingtonThe red cable car above Wellington

Photos: Warsaw by Raymond Petrik, Pexels License; Wellington by lumoplank, CC0.

Warsaw 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 Warsaw for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • nightlife

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

Choose Wellington for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • beaches
  • 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. Warsaw 12, Wellington 33: Wellington leads by 21 points.
Food & drink. Warsaw 60, Wellington 62: Wellington leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Warsaw 70, Wellington 44: Warsaw leads by 26 points.
Nightlife. Warsaw 66, Wellington 45: Warsaw leads by 21 points.
Nature & outdoors. Warsaw 47, Wellington 78: Wellington leads by 31 points.
Day trips. Warsaw 52, Wellington 40: Warsaw leads by 12 points.
Good for families. Warsaw and Wellington are level on 62.
Getting around. Warsaw 72, Wellington 68: Warsaw leads by 4 points.
Shopping & style. Warsaw 55, Wellington 42: Warsaw leads by 13 points.
Affordability. Warsaw 64, Wellington 33: Warsaw leads by 31 points.
Live music & performing arts. Warsaw 63, Wellington 56: Warsaw leads by 7 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Warsaw 35, Wellington 30: Warsaw leads by 5 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Warsaw
Best match
55match

Wins on prices and culture and sights with your weighting.

Wellington
49match

Wins on nature and the outdoors 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.

Warsaw in July

25 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
83 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
No seasea
16 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°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
WarsawWellington

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. Warsaw: 1991-2020 normals, Warszawa-Okecie (7.7 km from centre). Wellington: 1961-1990 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Wellington Aerodrome Aws (5.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureWarsawWellington
Official languagePolishEnglish, New Zealand Sign Language, Māori
CurrencyZloty (PLN)New Zealand Dollar (NZD)
SocketsCE50 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+12, UTC+13 in summer
Emergency number112111
Elevation118 m0 m
Main airportWarsaw Chopin Airport (WAW)8 km from centre172 non-stop destinationsWellington International Airport (WLG)5 km from centre20 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureWarsawWellington
City population1,862,402216,200
People per km²3,601487
Museums within 10 km11712
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
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 Warsaw 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). 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. 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.