VacationSelector
The wharf at Queenstown with the Remarkables behind, Queenstown
QueenstownThe wharf at Queenstown with the Remarkables behind
The cathedral facade, Siena
SienaThe cathedral facade

Photos: Queenstown by Robert Linsdell, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Siena by Raimond Spekking, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Queenstown or Siena?

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
  • nightlife

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

Choose Siena for

  • culture and sights
  • day trips
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Siena’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, Siena 14: Queenstown leads by 6 points.
Food & drink. Queenstown 45, Siena 62: Siena leads by 17 points.
Culture & sights. Queenstown 12, Siena 78: Siena leads by 66 points.
Nightlife. Queenstown 42, Siena 27: Queenstown leads by 15 points.
Nature & outdoors. Queenstown 97, Siena 65: Queenstown leads by 32 points.
Day trips. Queenstown 50, Siena 94: Siena leads by 44 points.
Good for families. Queenstown 60, Siena 38: Queenstown leads by 22 points.
Getting around. Queenstown 45, Siena 60: Siena leads by 15 points.
Shopping & style. Queenstown 28, Siena 35: Siena leads by 7 points.
Affordability. Queenstown 20, Siena 42: Siena leads by 22 points.
Live music & performing arts. Queenstown 14, Siena 36: Siena leads by 22 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Queenstown 42, Siena 55: Siena leads by 13 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Queenstown and Siena.

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.

Siena
Best match
51match

Wins on culture and sights and day trips 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
9 hdaylight a day

Siena in July

31 °Cdaytime high
17 °Cnight-time low
27 mmrain in the month
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
QueenstownSiena

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.

Siena's temperatures are measured 45 km from the centre, at Arezzo.

Siena 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.

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. Siena: 2006-2017 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Arezzo (45 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureQueenstownSiena
Official languageEnglish, New Zealand Sign Language, MāoriItalian
CurrencyNew Zealand Dollar (NZD)Euro (EUR)
SocketsI230 V, 50 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+12, UTC+13 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number111112
Elevation324 m322 m
Main airportQueenstown Airport (ZQN)7 km from centre7 non-stop destinationsFlorence Airport, Peretola (FLR)55 km from centre46 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureQueenstownSiena
City population29,00052,812
People per km²-446
Museums within 10 km030
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km05

Where else could you go?

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