VacationSelector
Beira Lake with Seema Malaka and the Lotus Tower, Colombo
ColomboBeira Lake with Seema Malaka and the Lotus Tower
The old Bath House in the Government Gardens, Rotorua
RotoruaThe old Bath House in the Government Gardens

Photos: Colombo by Mohamed Ansaf, Pexels License; Rotorua by W. Bulach, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Colombo 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 Colombo for

  • prices
  • food and drink
  • shopping

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

Choose Rotorua for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness
  • 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. Colombo 55, Rotorua 33: Colombo leads by 22 points.
Food & drink. Colombo 66, Rotorua 33: Colombo leads by 33 points.
Culture & sights. Colombo 45, Rotorua 38: Colombo leads by 7 points.
Nightlife. Colombo 35, Rotorua 14: Colombo leads by 21 points.
Nature & outdoors. Colombo 32, Rotorua 86: Rotorua leads by 54 points.
Day trips. Colombo 50, Rotorua 45: Colombo leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Colombo 35, Rotorua 68: Rotorua leads by 33 points.
Getting around. Colombo 35, Rotorua 30: Colombo leads by 5 points.
Shopping & style. Colombo 45, Rotorua 22: Colombo leads by 23 points.
Affordability. Colombo 78, Rotorua 36: Colombo leads by 42 points.
Live music & performing arts. Colombo and Rotorua are level on 30.
Wellness & relaxation. Colombo 48, Rotorua 86: Rotorua leads by 38 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Colombo and Rotorua.

Your match

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

Colombo
Best match
46match

Wins on prices and food and drink with your weighting.

Rotorua
43match

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

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Colombo in July

30 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
128 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
28 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Rotorua in July

11 °Cdaytime high
6 °Cnight-time low
113 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
15 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
ColomboRotorua

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. Colombo: 1991-2020 normals, Colombo (3 km from centre). Rotorua: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureColomboRotorua
Official languageTamil, SinhalaEnglish, New Zealand Sign Language, Māori
CurrencySri Lanka Rupee (LKR)New Zealand Dollar (NZD)
SocketsGM230 V, 50 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+5:30UTC+12, UTC+13 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 119, ambulance 110, fire 110111
Elevation1 m280 m
Main airportBandaranaike International Colombo Airport (CMB)28 km from centre56 non-stop destinationsRotorua Regional Airport (ROT)7 km from centre3 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-12 days

By the numbers

MeasureColomboRotorua
City population647,55758,500
People per km²17,36122
Museums within 10 km101
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 Colombo 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). 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. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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.