Photos: Keystone by Rudi Riet, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Queenstown by Robert Linsdell, CC BY 2.0, cropped.
Keystone 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 Keystone for
- live music and the arts
- families
- day trips
What lies behind each score is written up on Keystone’s own page.
Choose Queenstown for
- nightlife
- food and drink
- beaches
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.
What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Keystone and Queenstown.
Your match
Pick a travel style or drag the sliders, and both match scores follow your weighting.
Wins on live music and the arts and families with your weighting.
Wins on nightlife and food and drink with your weighting.
What matters to you?
When should you go?
Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.
Keystone in July
Queenstown in July
Daytime high, °C
Rainfall in the month, mm
Where the figures come from
Keystone's temperatures are measured 51 km from the centre, at Leadville / Stringtown.
Keystone's station stands 232 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer than the figures say.
Keystone 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.
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. Keystone: 2006-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Leadville / Stringtown (50.8 km from centre). Queenstown: 1991-2020 normals, TerraClimate 4 km grid at the town, no weather station within 90 km.
Before you go
| Measure | Keystone | Queenstown |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | - | English, New Zealand Sign Language, Māori |
| Currency | US Dollar (USD) | New Zealand Dollar (NZD) |
| Sockets | AB120 V, 60 Hz | I230 V, 50 Hz |
| Driving side | Right | Left |
| Time zone | UTC-7, UTC-6 in summer | UTC+12, UTC+13 in summer |
| Emergency number | 911 | 111 |
| Elevation | 2,796 m | 324 m |
| Main airport | Denver International Airport (DEN)116 km from centre231 non-stop destinations | Queenstown Airport (ZQN)7 km from centre7 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 12 days | 12 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Keystone | Queenstown |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 1,369 | 29,000 |
| People per km² | 13 | - |
| Museums within 10 km | 0 | 0 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 0 | 0 |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Keystone or Queenstown somewhere new.