VacationSelector
Turquoise water off Giftun Island, Hurghada
HurghadaTurquoise water off Giftun Island
The wharf at Queenstown with the Remarkables behind, Queenstown
QueenstownThe wharf at Queenstown with the Remarkables behind

Photos: Hurghada by Andrey Korchagin, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Queenstown by Robert Linsdell, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Hurghada 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 Hurghada for

  • beaches
  • prices
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Queenstown for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • getting around
  • day trips

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. Hurghada 84, Queenstown 20: Hurghada leads by 64 points.
Food & drink. Hurghada 34, Queenstown 45: Queenstown leads by 11 points.
Culture & sights. Hurghada 14, Queenstown 12: Hurghada leads by 2 points.
Nightlife. Hurghada 40, Queenstown 42: Queenstown leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Hurghada 72, Queenstown 97: Queenstown leads by 25 points.
Day trips. Hurghada 30, Queenstown 50: Queenstown leads by 20 points.
Good for families. Hurghada 62, Queenstown 60: Hurghada leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Hurghada 22, Queenstown 45: Queenstown leads by 23 points.
Shopping & style. Hurghada 24, Queenstown 28: Queenstown leads by 4 points.
Affordability. Hurghada 80, Queenstown 20: Hurghada leads by 60 points.
Live music & performing arts. Hurghada 10, Queenstown 14: Queenstown leads by 4 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Hurghada 44, Queenstown 42: Hurghada leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Hurghada and Queenstown.

Your match

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

Hurghada
Best match
43match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

Queenstown
40match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and getting around with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Hurghada in July

37 °Cdaytime high
28 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
28 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Queenstown in July

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

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
HurghadaQueenstown

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. Hurghada: 1991-2020 normals, Hurguada (15.2 km from centre). Queenstown: 1991-2020 normals, TerraClimate 4 km grid at the town, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureHurghadaQueenstown
Official languageArabicEnglish, New Zealand Sign Language, Māori
CurrencyEgyptian Pound (EGP)New Zealand Dollar (NZD)
SocketsCF220 V, 50 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+2, UTC+3 in summerUTC+12, UTC+13 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 122, ambulance 123, fire 180111
Elevation11 m324 m
Main airportHurghada International Airport (HRG)9 km from centre111 non-stop destinationsQueenstown Airport (ZQN)7 km from centre7 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year15 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureHurghadaQueenstown
City population214,24729,000
Museums within 10 km10
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Hurghada or Queenstown 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). 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. Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national sources. Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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.