VacationSelector
The red cable car above Wellington, Wellington
WellingtonThe red cable car above Wellington
The Limmat from Quaibrücke, Zurich
ZurichThe Limmat from Quaibrücke

Photos: Wellington by lumoplank, CC0; Zurich by Daniel Kraft, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Wellington or Zurich?

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

  • prices
  • food and drink

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

Choose Zurich for

  • day trips
  • wellness
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Zurich’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, Zurich 45: Zurich leads by 12 points.
Food & drink. Wellington 62, Zurich 53: Wellington leads by 9 points.
Culture & sights. Wellington 44, Zurich 58: Zurich leads by 14 points.
Nightlife. Wellington 45, Zurich 62: Zurich leads by 17 points.
Nature & outdoors. Wellington 78, Zurich 80: Zurich leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Wellington 40, Zurich 84: Zurich leads by 44 points.
Good for families. Wellington 62, Zurich 76: Zurich leads by 14 points.
Getting around. Wellington 68, Zurich 95: Zurich leads by 27 points.
Shopping & style. Wellington 42, Zurich 66: Zurich leads by 24 points.
Affordability. Wellington 33, Zurich 3: Wellington leads by 30 points.
Live music & performing arts. Wellington 56, Zurich 70: Zurich leads by 14 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Wellington 30, Zurich 58: Zurich leads by 28 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Wellington and Zurich.

Your match

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

Wellington
49match

Wins on prices and food and drink with your weighting.

Zurich
Best match
63match

Wins on day trips and wellness 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

Zurich in July

24 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
126 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
No seasea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°5°10°15°20°25°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
WellingtonZurich

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). Zurich: 1991-2020 normals, Zurich Town / Ville. (2.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureWellingtonZurich
Official languageEnglish, New Zealand Sign Language, MāoriFrench, German, Italian, Romansh
CurrencyNew Zealand Dollar (NZD)Swiss Franc (CHF)
SocketsI230 V, 50 HzCJ230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+12, UTC+13 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number111112
Elevation0 m408 m
Main airportWellington International Airport (WLG)5 km from centre20 non-stop destinationsZürich Airport (ZRH)9 km from centre226 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days10 days

By the numbers

MeasureWellingtonZurich
City population216,200440,935
People per km²4875,016
Museums within 10 km1263
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
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 Zurich 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. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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.