VacationSelector
Palm Springs
The wharf at Queenstown with the Remarkables behind, Queenstown
QueenstownThe wharf at Queenstown with the Remarkables behind

Photos: Queenstown by Robert Linsdell, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Palm Springs 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 Palm Springs for

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

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

Choose Queenstown for

  • getting around
  • families
  • nature and the outdoors

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. Palm Springs 7, Queenstown 20: Queenstown leads by 13 points.
Food & drink. Palm Springs 40, Queenstown 45: Queenstown leads by 5 points.
Culture & sights. Palm Springs 42, Queenstown 12: Palm Springs leads by 30 points.
Nightlife. Palm Springs 36, Queenstown 42: Queenstown leads by 6 points.
Nature & outdoors. Palm Springs 78, Queenstown 97: Queenstown leads by 19 points.
Day trips. Palm Springs 38, Queenstown 50: Queenstown leads by 12 points.
Good for families. Palm Springs 40, Queenstown 60: Queenstown leads by 20 points.
Getting around. Palm Springs 22, Queenstown 45: Queenstown leads by 23 points.
Shopping & style. Palm Springs 44, Queenstown 28: Palm Springs leads by 16 points.
Affordability. Palm Springs 32, Queenstown 20: Palm Springs leads by 12 points.
Live music & performing arts. Palm Springs 40, Queenstown 14: Palm Springs leads by 26 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Palm Springs 80, Queenstown 42: Palm Springs leads by 38 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Palm Springs 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

Palm Springs
42match

Wins on wellness and culture and sights with your weighting.

Queenstown
40match

Wins on getting around 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.

Palm Springs in July

42 °Cdaytime high
28 °Cnight-time low
5 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
Palm SpringsQueenstown

Where the figures come from

Palm Springs 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. Palm Springs: 2006-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Palm Springs (2.3 km from centre). Queenstown: 1991-2020 normals, TerraClimate 4 km grid at the town, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasurePalm SpringsQueenstown
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
Elevation146 m324 m
Main airportPalm Springs International Airport (PSP)2 km from centre29 non-stop destinationsQueenstown Airport (ZQN)7 km from centre7 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasurePalm SpringsQueenstown
City population44,57529,000
People per km²181-
Museums within 10 km30
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 Palm Springs 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.