VacationSelector
The floating torii of Itsukushima at Miyajima, Hiroshima
HiroshimaThe floating torii of Itsukushima at Miyajima
The wharf at Queenstown with the Remarkables behind, Queenstown
QueenstownThe wharf at Queenstown with the Remarkables behind

Photos: Hiroshima by Guohua Song, Pexels License; Queenstown by Robert Linsdell, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Hiroshima or Queenstown?

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 Hiroshima for

  • culture and sights
  • prices
  • day trips

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

Choose Queenstown for

  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Queenstown’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. Hiroshima 30, Queenstown 20: Hiroshima leads by 10 points.
Food & drink. Hiroshima 66, Queenstown 45: Hiroshima leads by 21 points.
Culture & sights. Hiroshima 60, Queenstown 12: Hiroshima leads by 48 points.
Nightlife. Hiroshima 45, Queenstown 42: Hiroshima leads by 3 points.
Nature & outdoors. Hiroshima 62, Queenstown 97: Queenstown leads by 35 points.
Day trips. Hiroshima 80, Queenstown 50: Hiroshima leads by 30 points.
Good for families. Hiroshima and Queenstown are level on 60.
Getting around. Hiroshima 74, Queenstown 45: Hiroshima leads by 29 points.
Shopping & style. Hiroshima 52, Queenstown 28: Hiroshima leads by 24 points.
Affordability. Hiroshima 58, Queenstown 20: Hiroshima leads by 38 points.
Live music & performing arts. Hiroshima 38, Queenstown 14: Hiroshima leads by 24 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Hiroshima 50, Queenstown 42: Hiroshima leads by 8 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Hiroshima and Queenstown.

Your match

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

Hiroshima
Best match
56match

Wins on culture and sights and prices with your weighting.

Queenstown
40match

Wins on 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.

Hiroshima in July

31 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
299 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
24 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Queenstown in July

6 °Cdaytime high
-1 °Cnight-time low
115 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
9 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
HiroshimaQueenstown

Where the figures come from

Queenstown has no weather station within reach, so its figures come from a gridded climate model rather than a measured record, and read a broad area rather than the city itself.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Hiroshima: 1991-2020 normals, Hiroshima (1.7 km from centre). Queenstown: 1991-2020 normals, TerraClimate 4 km grid at the town, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureHiroshimaQueenstown
Official languageJapaneseEnglish, New Zealand Sign Language, Māori
CurrencyYen (JPY)New Zealand Dollar (NZD)
SocketsAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the regionI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+9UTC+12, UTC+13 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 110, fire 119111
Elevation3 m324 m
Main airportHiroshima Airport (HIJ)43 km from centre10 non-stop destinationsQueenstown Airport (ZQN)7 km from centre7 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureHiroshimaQueenstown
City population1,198,02129,000
People per km²1,324-
Museums within 10 km180
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °C4 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Hiroshima or Queenstown somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national 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. Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.