VacationSelector
The fountain on Plaza Mayor, Lima
LimaThe fountain on Plaza Mayor
The wharf at Queenstown with the Remarkables behind, Queenstown
QueenstownThe wharf at Queenstown with the Remarkables behind

Photos: Lima by James C., CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Queenstown by Robert Linsdell, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Lima 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 Lima for

  • culture and sights
  • prices
  • food and drink

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

Choose Queenstown for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • families
  • wellness

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. Lima 42, Queenstown 20: Lima leads by 22 points.
Food & drink. Lima 88, Queenstown 45: Lima leads by 43 points.
Culture & sights. Lima 66, Queenstown 12: Lima leads by 54 points.
Nightlife. Lima 62, Queenstown 42: Lima leads by 20 points.
Nature & outdoors. Lima 45, Queenstown 97: Queenstown leads by 52 points.
Day trips. Lima 34, Queenstown 50: Queenstown leads by 16 points.
Good for families. Lima 42, Queenstown 60: Queenstown leads by 18 points.
Getting around. Lima 35, Queenstown 45: Queenstown leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Lima 52, Queenstown 28: Lima leads by 24 points.
Affordability. Lima 70, Queenstown 20: Lima leads by 50 points.
Live music & performing arts. Lima 53, Queenstown 14: Lima leads by 39 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Lima 25, Queenstown 42: Queenstown leads by 17 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Lima and Queenstown.

Your match

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

Lima
Best match
51match

Wins on culture and sights and prices with your weighting.

Queenstown
40match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and families with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Lima in July

19 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
1 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
12 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°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
LimaQueenstown

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. Lima: 1991-2020 normals, Lima-Callao / Aerop. Internacional Jorgechavez (10.9 km from centre). Queenstown: 1991-2020 normals, TerraClimate 4 km grid at the town, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureLimaQueenstown
Official languageSpanish, Aymara, QuechuaEnglish, New Zealand Sign Language, Māori
CurrencySol (PEN)New Zealand Dollar (NZD)
SocketsABC220 V, 60 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+12, UTC+13 in summer
Emergency number111 or 911111
Elevation154 m324 m
Main airportJorge Chávez International Airport (LIM)9 km from centre61 non-stop destinationsQueenstown Airport (ZQN)7 km from centre7 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureLimaQueenstown
City population9,943,80029,000
People per km²3,721-
Museums within 10 km470
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °C2 months-

Where else could you go?

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