Queenstown or Whistler?

Neither town has the sea, but Whistler's lakes are much better for a real swim. In July and August, Lost Lake's sandy shore lies within walking distance of the village, Alta and Alpha lakes have rafts and grassy parks, and the shallower water warms to about 20°C.

In Queenstown the deep, snow-fed Wakatipu stays cold enough that a swim means a quick jump off the town jetty. For gentler water you have to drive to Lake Hayes or Moke Lake.

The two towns eat about equally well, but they lean different ways. In Queenstown, wine leads. A long lunch among the Gibbston Valley pinot noir vines is the best meal of the trip, and back in town there are lamb and venison, pies and famous burger queues.

Whistler's best tables cook Pacific Northwest produce such as BC salmon and spot prawns, backed by serious cellars. Its daily food ritual is nachos and craft beer on the après patios. Both towns run out of variety within a week.

Whistler has more to fill a day off the slopes. The Audain Art Museum holds Emily Carr paintings and Northwest Coast First Nations masks, and the Squamish Lil'wat Cultural Centre shows the carving and weaving of the two nations whose land this is.

Queenstown has no museum of weight. Its sights are the 1912 TSS Earnslaw steamship, a few gold-rush stone buildings and the view from Bob's Peak. Its history is better told in Arrowtown.

Both towns party harder than their size suggests, and both crowds are young seasonal workers. Queenstown's few central blocks are full of pubs, cocktail bars and DJ bars rather than true clubs. Its nightlife also keeps going in summer, with long light evenings on the lakefront terraces.

Whistler has a handful of real clubs, and after the lifts close the après crowd moves straight there from the patios. Outside the ski season and the summer bike festivals, though, the village goes quiet early.

Both are world-class mountain bases, so the choice is about the kind of outdoors you want. Queenstown's appeal is variety and thrill. Commercial bungy jumping began at the Kawarau Bridge, and there are jet boats in the Shotover canyons, the Routeburn Track and a day out to Milford Sound. Its skiing is spread over several separate fields.

Whistler is built on scale. Whistler and Blackcomb are joined by the Peak 2 Peak Gondola, with glaciers and deep Coast Mountains snow. In summer the town has a famous downhill bike park, Garibaldi's turquoise lakes and black bears on the slopes.

Queenstown has far more towns within easy reach. Gold-rush Arrowtown is twenty minutes away, Wanaka is an hour over the Crown Range, and the vineyards of Cromwell, Bannockburn and old Clyde make relaxed outings.

Around Whistler there is mostly wilderness. You can visit farming Pemberton, Squamish with its gondola, and the Britannia mining museum. The one big outing is Vancouver, two hours down the Sea to Sky Highway, and it is better done with an overnight stay.

Whistler is the easier family base. Children can walk safely through the car-free village, and lodgings with kitchens are common. Large ski schools, tubing, mini-golf and summer lake beaches mean little time in a car.

Queenstown has good set pieces: the gondola and luge, kiwi at the wildlife park and a cruise on the old steamship. But its famous jumps and swings have age and weight limits, and long drives to the bigger sights tire young children.

Whistler is much easier without a car. The gondolas to both mountains leave from the edge of its pedestrian village, free shuttles run along the valley, and the paved Valley Trail links lakes and parks on foot or by bike.

Queenstown's centre is tiny and easy to walk, and buses run to Arrowtown and Frankton. Beyond that, the wineries, Glenorchy and the trailheads really call for a hire car, and the single Frankton road backs up at busy times.

Both towns are mostly places to buy outdoor gear, and neither is a fashion destination. Queenstown adds merino and possum-wool knitwear, greenstone jewellery and a summer craft market by the wharf. Whistler adds specialist ski tuning shops, Indigenous prints and carvings, and a summer farmers' market in the Upper Village.

Both towns are expensive, but Whistler is harder on the wallet. Its lift passes are among the world's costliest, and slopeside rooms climb steeply over Christmas and New Year.

In Queenstown the bills come mostly from the activities: bungy jumps, jet boats and scenic flights. Hostels, Frankton supermarkets and the free trails go further there.

Neither is a place for a concert or a play. In Queenstown, live music mostly means a covers band in a pub, plus a few days of street performance during the winter festival. Whistler's free summer concerts on Olympic Plaza and its buskers give the village a little more outdoor music. For anything bigger, Vancouver is two hours away.

Whistler takes wellness more seriously. Its Nordic-style spa beside the river, with hot pools, saunas and a rule of silence, is an evening many visitors remember, and the big hotels have full spas for sore ski legs.

Queenstown has no bathing tradition. Unwinding there means a private cedar tub above the Shotover or a lodge massage, and the calm is easier to find in Arrowtown or Glenorchy than in the busy centre.