VacationSelector
The red cable car above Wellington, Wellington
WellingtonThe red cable car above Wellington
The Christuskirche among palms, Windhoek
WindhoekThe Christuskirche among palms

Photos: Wellington by lumoplank, CC0; Windhoek by Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Wellington or Windhoek?

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 Wellington for

  • getting around
  • live music and the arts
  • families

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

Choose Windhoek for

  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Windhoek’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. Wellington 33, Windhoek 4: Wellington leads by 29 points.
Food & drink. Wellington 62, Windhoek 36: Wellington leads by 26 points.
Culture & sights. Wellington 44, Windhoek 30: Wellington leads by 14 points.
Nightlife. Wellington 45, Windhoek 25: Wellington leads by 20 points.
Nature & outdoors. Wellington 78, Windhoek 52: Wellington leads by 26 points.
Day trips. Wellington 40, Windhoek 14: Wellington leads by 26 points.
Good for families. Wellington 62, Windhoek 30: Wellington leads by 32 points.
Getting around. Wellington 68, Windhoek 22: Wellington leads by 46 points.
Shopping & style. Wellington 42, Windhoek 30: Wellington leads by 12 points.
Affordability. Wellington 33, Windhoek 62: Windhoek leads by 29 points.
Live music & performing arts. Wellington 56, Windhoek 18: Wellington leads by 38 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Wellington and Windhoek are level on 30.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Wellington
Best match
49match

Wins on getting around and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Windhoek
29match

Wins on prices with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

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

Windhoek in July

22 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
11 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
WellingtonWindhoek

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. Wellington: 1961-1990 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Wellington Aerodrome Aws (5.3 km from centre). Windhoek: 1991-2020 normals, Windhoek (1.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureWellingtonWindhoek
Official languageEnglish, New Zealand Sign Language, MāoriEnglish
CurrencyNew Zealand Dollar (NZD)Namibia Dollar (NAD)
SocketsI230 V, 50 HzM220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+12, UTC+13 in summerUTC+2
Emergency number111112
Elevation0 m1,650 m
Main airportWellington International Airport (WLG)5 km from centre20 non-stop destinationsHosea Kutako International Airport (WDH)41 km from centre16 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureWellingtonWindhoek
City population216,200486,169
People per km²48795
Museums within 10 km125
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Wellington or Windhoek 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.