VacationSelector
The church of La Compania under a blue sky, Arequipa
ArequipaThe church of La Compania under a blue sky
Erasmus Bridge and the skyline, Rotterdam
RotterdamErasmus Bridge and the skyline

Photos: Arequipa by DocSlyper, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Rotterdam by Bas Geerlings, Pexels License.

Arequipa or Rotterdam?

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
  • nature and the outdoors
  • food and drink

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

Choose Rotterdam for

  • day trips
  • families
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Rotterdam’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, Rotterdam 27: Rotterdam leads by 19 points.
Food & drink. Arequipa 66, Rotterdam 52: Arequipa leads by 14 points.
Culture & sights. Arequipa 64, Rotterdam 58: Arequipa leads by 6 points.
Nightlife. Arequipa 36, Rotterdam 52: Rotterdam leads by 16 points.
Nature & outdoors. Arequipa 74, Rotterdam 44: Arequipa leads by 30 points.
Day trips. Arequipa 30, Rotterdam 85: Rotterdam leads by 55 points.
Good for families. Arequipa 35, Rotterdam 66: Rotterdam leads by 31 points.
Getting around. Arequipa 54, Rotterdam 78: Rotterdam leads by 24 points.
Shopping & style. Arequipa 44, Rotterdam 55: Rotterdam leads by 11 points.
Affordability. Arequipa 82, Rotterdam 38: Arequipa leads by 44 points.
Live music & performing arts. Arequipa 27, Rotterdam 58: Rotterdam leads by 31 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Arequipa 34, Rotterdam 42: Rotterdam leads by 8 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Arequipa and Rotterdam.

Your match

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

Arequipa
46match

Wins on prices and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Rotterdam
Best match
55match

Wins on day trips 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 recordsunshine a day
No seasea
11 hdaylight a day

Rotterdam in July

22 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
91 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°5°10°15°20°25°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
ArequipaRotterdam

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.

Rotterdam 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.

Rotterdam's sunshine is measured 52 km from the centre, at De Bilt.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Arequipa: 1991-2020 normals, Arequipa (9.2 km from centre). Rotterdam: 1993-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Rotterdam Airport Zestienhoven (3.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureArequipaRotterdam
Official languageSpanish, Aymara, QuechuaDutch
CurrencySol (PEN)Euro (EUR)
SocketsABC220 V, 60 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number111 or 911112
Elevation2,335 m10 m
Main airportRodríguez Ballón International Airport (AQP)7 km from centre2 non-stop destinationsRotterdam The Hague Airport (RTM)5 km from centre53 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year17 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureArequipaRotterdam
City population1,008,290664,311
People per km²1,5512,080
Museums within 10 km340
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km15
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 Rotterdam 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates.

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.