VacationSelector
The Opera House on the fjord, Oslo
OsloThe Opera House on the fjord
The wharf at Queenstown with the Remarkables behind, Queenstown
QueenstownThe wharf at Queenstown with the Remarkables behind

Photos: Oslo by Beata May, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Queenstown by Robert Linsdell, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Oslo 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 Oslo for

  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts
  • getting around

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

Choose Queenstown for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • prices

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. Oslo 36, Queenstown 20: Oslo leads by 16 points.
Food & drink. Oslo 55, Queenstown 45: Oslo leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. Oslo 66, Queenstown 12: Oslo leads by 54 points.
Nightlife. Oslo 48, Queenstown 42: Oslo leads by 6 points.
Nature & outdoors. Oslo 82, Queenstown 97: Queenstown leads by 15 points.
Day trips. Oslo 52, Queenstown 50: Oslo leads by 2 points.
Good for families. Oslo 63, Queenstown 60: Oslo leads by 3 points.
Getting around. Oslo 85, Queenstown 45: Oslo leads by 40 points.
Shopping & style. Oslo 50, Queenstown 28: Oslo leads by 22 points.
Affordability. Oslo 14, Queenstown 20: Queenstown leads by 6 points.
Live music & performing arts. Oslo 62, Queenstown 14: Oslo leads by 48 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Oslo 60, Queenstown 42: Oslo leads by 18 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Oslo and Queenstown.

Your match

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

Oslo
Best match
56match

Wins on culture and sights and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Queenstown
40match

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

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Oslo in July

23 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
86 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
18 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°5°10°15°20°25°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
OsloQueenstown

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. Oslo: 1991-2020 normals, Oslo-Blindern (4.3 km from centre). Queenstown: 1991-2020 normals, TerraClimate 4 km grid at the town, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureOsloQueenstown
Official languageNorwegian, Nynorsk, Bokmål, SámiEnglish, New Zealand Sign Language, Māori
CurrencyNorwegian Krone (NOK)New Zealand Dollar (NZD)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+12, UTC+13 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 112, ambulance 113, fire 110111
Elevation23 m324 m
Main airportOslo-Gardermoen International Airport (OSL)37 km from centre147 non-stop destinationsQueenstown Airport (ZQN)7 km from centre7 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureOsloQueenstown
City population717,71029,000
Museums within 10 km600
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Oslo 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). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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.