VacationSelector
Fort San Pedro in Cebu City, Cebu
CebuFort San Pedro in Cebu City
The old Bath House in the Government Gardens, Rotorua
RotoruaThe old Bath House in the Government Gardens

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

Cebu 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 Cebu for

  • prices
  • nightlife
  • beaches

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

Choose Rotorua for

  • wellness
  • nature and the outdoors
  • families

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. Cebu 60, Rotorua 33: Cebu leads by 27 points.
Food & drink. Cebu 58, Rotorua 33: Cebu leads by 25 points.
Culture & sights. Cebu 40, Rotorua 38: Cebu leads by 2 points.
Nightlife. Cebu 46, Rotorua 14: Cebu leads by 32 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cebu 60, Rotorua 86: Rotorua leads by 26 points.
Day trips. Cebu 44, Rotorua 45: Rotorua leads by 1 points.
Good for families. Cebu 45, Rotorua 68: Rotorua leads by 23 points.
Getting around. Cebu 26, Rotorua 30: Rotorua leads by 4 points.
Shopping & style. Cebu 44, Rotorua 22: Cebu leads by 22 points.
Affordability. Cebu 80, Rotorua 36: Cebu leads by 44 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cebu 25, Rotorua 30: Rotorua leads by 5 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cebu 50, Rotorua 86: Rotorua leads by 36 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cebu and Rotorua.

Your match

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

Cebu
Best match
48match

Wins on prices and nightlife with your weighting.

Rotorua
43match

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

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Cebu in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
205 mmrain in the month
29 °Csea
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°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
CebuRotorua

Where the figures come from

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. Cebu: 1991-2020 normals, Mactan (7.1 km from centre). Rotorua: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureCebuRotorua
Official languageEnglish, Filipino, TaglishEnglish, New Zealand Sign Language, Māori
CurrencyPhilippine Peso (PHP)New Zealand Dollar (NZD)
SocketsABC220 V, 60 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+8UTC+12, UTC+13 in summer
Emergency number911111
Elevation135 m280 m
Main airportMactan Cebu International Airport (CEB)9 km from centre41 non-stop destinationsRotorua Regional Airport (ROT)7 km from centre3 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year18 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureCebuRotorua
City population965,33258,500
People per km²3,06522
Museums within 10 km51
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Cebu 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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. Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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.