VacationSelector
The church of La Compania under a blue sky, Arequipa
ArequipaThe church of La Compania under a blue sky
The old Bath House in the Government Gardens, Rotorua
RotoruaThe old Bath House in the Government Gardens

Photos: Arequipa by DocSlyper, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Rotorua by W. Bulach, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Arequipa 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 Arequipa for

  • prices
  • food and drink
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Arequipa’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. Arequipa 8, Rotorua 33: Rotorua leads by 25 points.
Food & drink. Arequipa 66, Rotorua 33: Arequipa leads by 33 points.
Culture & sights. Arequipa 64, Rotorua 38: Arequipa leads by 26 points.
Nightlife. Arequipa 36, Rotorua 14: Arequipa leads by 22 points.
Nature & outdoors. Arequipa 74, Rotorua 86: Rotorua leads by 12 points.
Day trips. Arequipa 30, Rotorua 45: Rotorua leads by 15 points.
Good for families. Arequipa 35, Rotorua 68: Rotorua leads by 33 points.
Getting around. Arequipa 54, Rotorua 30: Arequipa leads by 24 points.
Shopping & style. Arequipa 44, Rotorua 22: Arequipa leads by 22 points.
Affordability. Arequipa 82, Rotorua 36: Arequipa leads by 46 points.
Live music & performing arts. Arequipa 27, Rotorua 30: Rotorua leads by 3 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Arequipa 34, Rotorua 86: Rotorua leads by 52 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Arequipa and Rotorua.

Your match

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

Arequipa
Best match
46match

Wins on prices and food and drink 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.

Arequipa in July

21 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
No seasea
11 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°5°10°15°20°25°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
ArequipaRotorua

Where the figures come from

Arequipa's station stands 203 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer than the figures say.

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. Arequipa: 1991-2020 normals, Arequipa (9.2 km from centre). Rotorua: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureArequipaRotorua
Official languageSpanish, Aymara, QuechuaEnglish, New Zealand Sign Language, Māori
CurrencySol (PEN)New Zealand Dollar (NZD)
SocketsABC220 V, 60 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+12, UTC+13 in summer
Emergency number111 or 911111
Elevation2,335 m280 m
Main airportRodríguez Ballón International Airport (AQP)7 km from centre2 non-stop destinationsRotorua Regional Airport (ROT)7 km from centre3 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year17 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureArequipaRotorua
City population1,008,29058,500
People per km²1,55122
Museums within 10 km31
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 Arequipa 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.