VacationSelector
The wharf at Queenstown with the Remarkables behind, Queenstown
QueenstownThe wharf at Queenstown with the Remarkables behind
Painted colonial houses in the Pelourinho, Salvador
SalvadorPainted colonial houses in the Pelourinho

Photos: Queenstown by Robert Linsdell, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Salvador by Paul R. Burley, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Queenstown or Salvador?

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 Queenstown for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • families
  • wellness

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

Choose Salvador for

  • beaches
  • culture and sights
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Salvador’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. Queenstown 20, Salvador 84: Salvador leads by 64 points.
Food & drink. Queenstown 45, Salvador 66: Salvador leads by 21 points.
Culture & sights. Queenstown 12, Salvador 74: Salvador leads by 62 points.
Nightlife. Queenstown 42, Salvador 70: Salvador leads by 28 points.
Nature & outdoors. Queenstown 97, Salvador 52: Queenstown leads by 45 points.
Day trips. Queenstown 50, Salvador 56: Salvador leads by 6 points.
Good for families. Queenstown 60, Salvador 42: Queenstown leads by 18 points.
Getting around. Queenstown 45, Salvador 42: Queenstown leads by 3 points.
Shopping & style. Queenstown 28, Salvador 42: Salvador leads by 14 points.
Affordability. Queenstown 20, Salvador 70: Salvador leads by 50 points.
Live music & performing arts. Queenstown 14, Salvador 63: Salvador leads by 49 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Queenstown 42, Salvador 32: Queenstown leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Queenstown and Salvador.

Your match

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

Queenstown
40match

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

Salvador
Best match
58match

Wins on beaches and culture and sights with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

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

Salvador in July

27 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
201 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
26 °Csea
11 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
QueenstownSalvador

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. Queenstown: 1991-2020 normals, TerraClimate 4 km grid at the town, no weather station within 90 km. Salvador: 1991-2020 normals, Salvador (4.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureQueenstownSalvador
Official languageEnglish, New Zealand Sign Language, MāoriPortuguese
CurrencyNew Zealand Dollar (NZD)Brazilian Real (BRL)
SocketsI230 V, 50 HzCN60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+12, UTC+13 in summerUTC-3
Emergency number111Police 190, ambulance 192, fire 193
Elevation324 m8 m
Main airportQueenstown Airport (ZQN)7 km from centre7 non-stop destinationsDeputado Luiz Eduardo Magalhães International Airport (SSA)20 km from centre31 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureQueenstownSalvador
City population29,0002,417,678
People per km²-3,489
Museums within 10 km049
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C-12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Queenstown or Salvador somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national sources. Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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. Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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.