VacationSelector
The skyline over the Schuylkill, Philadelphia
PhiladelphiaThe skyline over the Schuylkill
The wharf at Queenstown with the Remarkables behind, Queenstown
QueenstownThe wharf at Queenstown with the Remarkables behind

Photos: Philadelphia by Trev W. Adams, Pexels License; Queenstown by Robert Linsdell, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Philadelphia 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 Philadelphia for

  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts
  • day trips

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

Choose Queenstown for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • 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. Philadelphia 36, Queenstown 20: Philadelphia leads by 16 points.
Food & drink. Philadelphia 62, Queenstown 45: Philadelphia leads by 17 points.
Culture & sights. Philadelphia 72, Queenstown 12: Philadelphia leads by 60 points.
Nightlife. Philadelphia 55, Queenstown 42: Philadelphia leads by 13 points.
Nature & outdoors. Philadelphia 52, Queenstown 97: Queenstown leads by 45 points.
Day trips. Philadelphia 80, Queenstown 50: Philadelphia leads by 30 points.
Good for families. Philadelphia 68, Queenstown 60: Philadelphia leads by 8 points.
Getting around. Philadelphia 66, Queenstown 45: Philadelphia leads by 21 points.
Shopping & style. Philadelphia 57, Queenstown 28: Philadelphia leads by 29 points.
Affordability. Philadelphia 40, Queenstown 20: Philadelphia leads by 20 points.
Live music & performing arts. Philadelphia 72, Queenstown 14: Philadelphia leads by 58 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Philadelphia 26, Queenstown 42: Queenstown leads by 16 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Philadelphia and Queenstown.

Your match

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

Philadelphia
Best match
57match

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

Queenstown
40match

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

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Philadelphia in July

31 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
111 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
15 hdaylight a day

Queenstown in July

6 °Cdaytime high
-1 °Cnight-time low
115 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
9 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
PhiladelphiaQueenstown

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. Philadelphia: 1991-2020 normals, Philadelphia International Airport (11.3 km from centre). Queenstown: 1991-2020 normals, TerraClimate 4 km grid at the town, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasurePhiladelphiaQueenstown
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-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC+12, UTC+13 in summer
Emergency number911111
Elevation12 m324 m
Main airportPhiladelphia International Airport (PHL)11 km from centre129 non-stop destinationsQueenstown Airport (ZQN)7 km from centre7 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasurePhiladelphiaQueenstown
City population1,603,79729,000
People per km²4,339-
Museums within 10 km540
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 Philadelphia 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.