VacationSelector
The Santa Catalina arch below Volcan de Agua, Antigua Guatemala
Antigua GuatemalaThe Santa Catalina arch below Volcan de Agua
The old Bath House in the Government Gardens, Rotorua
RotoruaThe old Bath House in the Government Gardens

Photos: Antigua Guatemala by Chad Davis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Rotorua by W. Bulach, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Antigua Guatemala or Rotorua?

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 Antigua Guatemala for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • getting around

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

Choose Rotorua for

  • wellness
  • families
  • beaches

What lies behind each score is written up on Rotorua’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. Antigua Guatemala 6, Rotorua 33: Rotorua leads by 27 points.
Food & drink. Antigua Guatemala 48, Rotorua 33: Antigua Guatemala leads by 15 points.
Culture & sights. Antigua Guatemala 68, Rotorua 38: Antigua Guatemala leads by 30 points.
Nightlife. Antigua Guatemala 34, Rotorua 14: Antigua Guatemala leads by 20 points.
Nature & outdoors. Antigua Guatemala 78, Rotorua 86: Rotorua leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Antigua Guatemala 55, Rotorua 45: Antigua Guatemala leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Antigua Guatemala 38, Rotorua 68: Rotorua leads by 30 points.
Getting around. Antigua Guatemala 60, Rotorua 30: Antigua Guatemala leads by 30 points.
Shopping & style. Antigua Guatemala 45, Rotorua 22: Antigua Guatemala leads by 23 points.
Affordability. Antigua Guatemala 67, Rotorua 36: Antigua Guatemala leads by 31 points.
Live music & performing arts. Antigua Guatemala 22, Rotorua 30: Rotorua leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Antigua Guatemala 42, Rotorua 86: Rotorua leads by 44 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Antigua Guatemala and Rotorua.

Your match

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

Antigua Guatemala
Best match
47match

Wins on prices and culture and sights with your weighting.

Rotorua
43match

Wins on wellness and families with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Antigua Guatemala in July

25 °Cdaytime high
17 °Cnight-time low
188 mmrain in the month
No seasea
13 hdaylight a day

Rotorua in July

11 °Cdaytime high
6 °Cnight-time low
113 mmrain in the month
15 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
Antigua GuatemalaRotorua

Where the figures come from

Antigua Guatemala 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.

Rotorua 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. Antigua Guatemala: 1998-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Guatemala Aeropuertola Aurora (23.5 km from centre). Rotorua: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureAntigua GuatemalaRotorua
Official languageSpanishEnglish, New Zealand Sign Language, Māori
CurrencyQuetzal (GTQ)New Zealand Dollar (NZD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-6UTC+12, UTC+13 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 110/120, ambulance 128, fire 123111
Elevation1,582 m280 m
Main airportLa Aurora International Airport (GUA)22 km from centre19 non-stop destinationsRotorua Regional Airport (ROT)7 km from centre3 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureAntigua GuatemalaRotorua
City population59,09158,500
People per km²-22
Museums within 10 km21
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C-None

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Antigua Guatemala or Rotorua 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). 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. Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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.