VacationSelector
The Manila Central Post Office on the Pasig, Manila
ManilaThe Manila Central Post Office on the Pasig
The wharf at Queenstown with the Remarkables behind, Queenstown
QueenstownThe wharf at Queenstown with the Remarkables behind

Photos: Manila by Kenneth Surillo, Pexels License; Queenstown by Robert Linsdell, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Manila 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 Manila for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Queenstown for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • getting around
  • 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. Manila 12, Queenstown 20: Queenstown leads by 8 points.
Food & drink. Manila 64, Queenstown 45: Manila leads by 19 points.
Culture & sights. Manila 54, Queenstown 12: Manila leads by 42 points.
Nightlife. Manila 64, Queenstown 42: Manila leads by 22 points.
Nature & outdoors. Manila 40, Queenstown 97: Queenstown leads by 57 points.
Day trips. Manila 42, Queenstown 50: Queenstown leads by 8 points.
Good for families. Manila 42, Queenstown 60: Queenstown leads by 18 points.
Getting around. Manila 26, Queenstown 45: Queenstown leads by 19 points.
Shopping & style. Manila 60, Queenstown 28: Manila leads by 32 points.
Affordability. Manila 77, Queenstown 20: Manila leads by 57 points.
Live music & performing arts. Manila 50, Queenstown 14: Manila leads by 36 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Manila 40, Queenstown 42: Queenstown leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Manila and Queenstown.

Your match

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

Manila
Best match
48match

Wins on prices and culture and sights 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.

Manila in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
487 mmrain in the month
29 °Csea
13 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

0200400600JFMAMJJASOND
ManilaQueenstown

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. Manila: 1991-2020 normals, Science Garden (6 km from centre). Queenstown: 1991-2020 normals, TerraClimate 4 km grid at the town, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureManilaQueenstown
Official languageEnglish, Filipino, TaglishEnglish, New Zealand Sign Language, Māori
CurrencyPhilippine Peso (PHP)New Zealand Dollar (NZD)
SocketsABC220 V, 60 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+8UTC+12, UTC+13 in summer
Emergency number911111
Elevation9 m324 m
Main airportNinoy Aquino International Airport (MNL)11 km from centre90 non-stop destinationsQueenstown Airport (ZQN)7 km from centre7 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year18 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureManilaQueenstown
City population1,902,59029,000
People per km²76,104-
Museums within 10 km270
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
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 Manila 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). 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.