VacationSelector
The wharf at Queenstown with the Remarkables behind, Queenstown
QueenstownThe wharf at Queenstown with the Remarkables behind
The Christuskirche among palms, Windhoek
WindhoekThe Christuskirche among palms

Photos: Queenstown by Robert Linsdell, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Windhoek by Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Queenstown or Windhoek?

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
  • day trips
  • families

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

Choose Windhoek for

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

What lies behind each score is written up on Windhoek’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, Windhoek 4: Queenstown leads by 16 points.
Food & drink. Queenstown 45, Windhoek 36: Queenstown leads by 9 points.
Culture & sights. Queenstown 12, Windhoek 30: Windhoek leads by 18 points.
Nightlife. Queenstown 42, Windhoek 25: Queenstown leads by 17 points.
Nature & outdoors. Queenstown 97, Windhoek 52: Queenstown leads by 45 points.
Day trips. Queenstown 50, Windhoek 14: Queenstown leads by 36 points.
Good for families. Queenstown 60, Windhoek 30: Queenstown leads by 30 points.
Getting around. Queenstown 45, Windhoek 22: Queenstown leads by 23 points.
Shopping & style. Queenstown 28, Windhoek 30: Windhoek leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Queenstown 20, Windhoek 62: Windhoek leads by 42 points.
Live music & performing arts. Queenstown 14, Windhoek 18: Windhoek leads by 4 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Queenstown 42, Windhoek 30: Queenstown leads by 12 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Queenstown and Windhoek.

Your match

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

Queenstown
Best match
40match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and day trips with your weighting.

Windhoek
29match

Wins on prices 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
9 hdaylight a day

Windhoek in July

22 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
11 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
QueenstownWindhoek

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. Windhoek: 1991-2020 normals, Windhoek (1.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureQueenstownWindhoek
Official languageEnglish, New Zealand Sign Language, MāoriEnglish
CurrencyNew Zealand Dollar (NZD)Namibia Dollar (NAD)
SocketsI230 V, 50 HzM220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+12, UTC+13 in summerUTC+2
Emergency number111112
Elevation324 m1,650 m
Main airportQueenstown Airport (ZQN)7 km from centre7 non-stop destinationsHosea Kutako International Airport (WDH)41 km from centre16 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureQueenstownWindhoek
City population29,000486,169
People per km²-95
Museums within 10 km05
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 Queenstown or Windhoek 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. 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.