VacationSelector
The Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign, Las Vegas
Las VegasThe Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign
The wharf at Queenstown with the Remarkables behind, Queenstown
QueenstownThe wharf at Queenstown with the Remarkables behind

Photos: Las Vegas by Christian David, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Queenstown by Robert Linsdell, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Las Vegas 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 Las Vegas for

  • live music and the arts
  • nightlife
  • shopping

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

Choose Queenstown for

  • families
  • nature and the outdoors
  • 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. Las Vegas 10, Queenstown 20: Queenstown leads by 10 points.
Food & drink. Las Vegas 68, Queenstown 45: Las Vegas leads by 23 points.
Culture & sights. Las Vegas 25, Queenstown 12: Las Vegas leads by 13 points.
Nightlife. Las Vegas 88, Queenstown 42: Las Vegas leads by 46 points.
Nature & outdoors. Las Vegas 68, Queenstown 97: Queenstown leads by 29 points.
Day trips. Las Vegas 25, Queenstown 50: Queenstown leads by 25 points.
Good for families. Las Vegas 25, Queenstown 60: Queenstown leads by 35 points.
Getting around. Las Vegas 38, Queenstown 45: Queenstown leads by 7 points.
Shopping & style. Las Vegas 64, Queenstown 28: Las Vegas leads by 36 points.
Affordability. Las Vegas 35, Queenstown 20: Las Vegas leads by 15 points.
Live music & performing arts. Las Vegas 78, Queenstown 14: Las Vegas leads by 64 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Las Vegas 40, Queenstown 42: Queenstown leads by 2 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Las Vegas and Queenstown.

Your match

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

Las Vegas
Best match
47match

Wins on live music and the arts and nightlife with your weighting.

Queenstown
40match

Wins on families and 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.

Las Vegas in July

40 °Cdaytime high
27 °Cnight-time low
9 mmrain in the month
14 hdaylight a day

Queenstown in July

6 °Cdaytime high
-1 °Cnight-time low
115 mmrain in the month
9 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°50°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Las VegasQueenstown

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. Las Vegas: 1991-2020 normals, McCarran International Airport (8.5 km from centre). Queenstown: 1991-2020 normals, TerraClimate 4 km grid at the town, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureLas VegasQueenstown
Official language-English, New Zealand Sign Language, Māori
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)New Zealand Dollar (NZD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-8, UTC-7 in summerUTC+12, UTC+13 in summer
Emergency number911111
Elevation610 m324 m
Main airportHarry Reid International Airport (LAS)4 km from centre159 non-stop destinationsQueenstown Airport (ZQN)7 km from centre7 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureLas VegasQueenstown
City population641,90329,000
People per km²1,843-
Museums within 10 km210
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Las Vegas 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. 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. 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. 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.