VacationSelector
The red cable car above Wellington, Wellington
WellingtonThe red cable car above Wellington
York Minster from the city walls, York
YorkYork Minster from the city walls

Photos: Wellington by lumoplank, CC0; York by PAUL FARMER, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Wellington or York?

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

  • food and drink
  • beaches
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose York for

  • day trips
  • culture and sights
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on York’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, York 14: Wellington leads by 19 points.
Food & drink. Wellington 62, York 42: Wellington leads by 20 points.
Culture & sights. Wellington 44, York 70: York leads by 26 points.
Nightlife. Wellington 45, York 36: Wellington leads by 9 points.
Nature & outdoors. Wellington 78, York 62: Wellington leads by 16 points.
Day trips. Wellington 40, York 80: York leads by 40 points.
Good for families. Wellington 62, York 60: Wellington leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Wellington 68, York 72: York leads by 4 points.
Shopping & style. Wellington 42, York 46: York leads by 4 points.
Affordability. Wellington 33, York 38: York leads by 5 points.
Live music & performing arts. Wellington 56, York 38: Wellington leads by 18 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Wellington 30, York 34: York leads by 4 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Too close to call, level with your weighting

Wellington
49match

Wins on food and drink and beaches with your weighting.

York
49match

Wins on day trips and culture and sights 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

York in July

21 °Cdaytime high
12 °Cnight-time low
62 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
No seasea
17 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°5°10°15°20°25°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
WellingtonYork

Where the figures come from

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

York 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.

York's sunshine is measured 48 km from the centre, at Leeming.

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). York: 1991-2020 normals, Linton-On-Ouse (14.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureWellingtonYork
Official languageEnglish, New Zealand Sign Language, MāoriEnglish
CurrencyNew Zealand Dollar (NZD)Pound Sterling (GBP)
SocketsI230 V, 50 HzG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+12, UTC+13 in summerUTC, UTC+1 in summer
Emergency number111112 or 999
Elevation0 m25 m
Main airportWellington International Airport (WLG)5 km from centre20 non-stop destinationsLeeds Bradford Airport (LBA)39 km from centre69 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days8 days

By the numbers

MeasureWellingtonYork
City population216,200208,400
People per km²487766
Museums within 10 km1224
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
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 York 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.