VacationSelector
Fort San Pedro in Cebu City, Cebu
CebuFort San Pedro in Cebu City
Erasmus Bridge and the skyline, Rotterdam
RotterdamErasmus Bridge and the skyline

Photos: Cebu by xiquinhosilva, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Rotterdam by Bas Geerlings, Pexels License.

Cebu 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 Cebu for

  • prices
  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Rotterdam for

  • getting around
  • day trips
  • 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. Cebu 60, Rotterdam 27: Cebu leads by 33 points.
Food & drink. Cebu 58, Rotterdam 52: Cebu leads by 6 points.
Culture & sights. Cebu 40, Rotterdam 58: Rotterdam leads by 18 points.
Nightlife. Cebu 46, Rotterdam 52: Rotterdam leads by 6 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cebu 60, Rotterdam 44: Cebu leads by 16 points.
Day trips. Cebu 44, Rotterdam 85: Rotterdam leads by 41 points.
Good for families. Cebu 45, Rotterdam 66: Rotterdam leads by 21 points.
Getting around. Cebu 26, Rotterdam 78: Rotterdam leads by 52 points.
Shopping & style. Cebu 44, Rotterdam 55: Rotterdam leads by 11 points.
Affordability. Cebu 80, Rotterdam 38: Cebu leads by 42 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cebu 25, Rotterdam 58: Rotterdam leads by 33 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cebu 50, Rotterdam 42: Cebu leads by 8 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cebu and Rotterdam.

Your match

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

Cebu
48match

Wins on prices and beaches with your weighting.

Rotterdam
Best match
55match

Wins on getting around and day trips 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
No recordsunshine a day
29 °Csea
13 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°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
CebuRotterdam

Where the figures come from

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. Cebu: 1991-2020 normals, Mactan (7.1 km from centre). Rotterdam: 1993-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Rotterdam Airport Zestienhoven (3.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCebuRotterdam
Official languageEnglish, Filipino, TaglishDutch
CurrencyPhilippine Peso (PHP)Euro (EUR)
SocketsABC220 V, 60 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+8UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation135 m10 m
Main airportMactan Cebu International Airport (CEB)9 km from centre41 non-stop destinationsRotterdam The Hague Airport (RTM)5 km from centre53 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year18 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureCebuRotterdam
City population965,332664,311
People per km²3,0652,080
Museums within 10 km540
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km05
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 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. 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. 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.

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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.