VacationSelector
The colonnaded court of Luxor Temple, Luxor
LuxorThe colonnaded court of Luxor Temple
The wharf at Queenstown with the Remarkables behind, Queenstown
QueenstownThe wharf at Queenstown with the Remarkables behind

Photos: Luxor by Dennis G. Jarvis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Queenstown by Robert Linsdell, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Luxor 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 Luxor for

  • culture and sights
  • prices
  • day trips

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

Choose Queenstown for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • nightlife
  • families

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. Luxor 6, Queenstown 20: Queenstown leads by 14 points.
Food & drink. Luxor 30, Queenstown 45: Queenstown leads by 15 points.
Culture & sights. Luxor 95, Queenstown 12: Luxor leads by 83 points.
Nightlife. Luxor 10, Queenstown 42: Queenstown leads by 32 points.
Nature & outdoors. Luxor 32, Queenstown 97: Queenstown leads by 65 points.
Day trips. Luxor 62, Queenstown 50: Luxor leads by 12 points.
Good for families. Luxor 30, Queenstown 60: Queenstown leads by 30 points.
Getting around. Luxor 35, Queenstown 45: Queenstown leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Luxor 25, Queenstown 28: Queenstown leads by 3 points.
Affordability. Luxor 90, Queenstown 20: Luxor leads by 70 points.
Live music & performing arts. Luxor 10, Queenstown 14: Queenstown leads by 4 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Luxor 28, Queenstown 42: Queenstown leads by 14 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Luxor and Queenstown.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Luxor
38match

Wins on culture and sights and prices with your weighting.

Queenstown
40match

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

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Luxor in July

41 °Cdaytime high
27 °Cnight-time low
0 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
LuxorQueenstown

Where the figures come from

Luxor 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. Luxor: 1998-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Luxor (6.5 km from centre). Queenstown: 1991-2020 normals, TerraClimate 4 km grid at the town, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureLuxorQueenstown
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
Elevation89 m324 m
Main airportLuxor International Airport (LXR)7 km from centre29 non-stop destinationsQueenstown Airport (ZQN)7 km from centre7 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year15 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureLuxorQueenstown
City population202,23229,000
People per km²486-
Museums within 10 km40
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10

Where else could you go?

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