VacationSelector
Fort Lovrijenac above the sea, Dubrovnik
DubrovnikFort Lovrijenac above the sea
The old Bath House in the Government Gardens, Rotorua
RotoruaThe old Bath House in the Government Gardens

Photos: Dubrovnik by Natalia Semenova, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Rotorua by W. Bulach, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Dubrovnik 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 Dubrovnik for

  • beaches
  • culture and sights
  • getting around

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

Choose Rotorua for

  • wellness
  • families
  • nature and the outdoors

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. Dubrovnik 74, Rotorua 33: Dubrovnik leads by 41 points.
Food & drink. Dubrovnik 47, Rotorua 33: Dubrovnik leads by 14 points.
Culture & sights. Dubrovnik 72, Rotorua 38: Dubrovnik leads by 34 points.
Nightlife. Dubrovnik 37, Rotorua 14: Dubrovnik leads by 23 points.
Nature & outdoors. Dubrovnik 70, Rotorua 86: Rotorua leads by 16 points.
Day trips. Dubrovnik 66, Rotorua 45: Dubrovnik leads by 21 points.
Good for families. Dubrovnik 50, Rotorua 68: Rotorua leads by 18 points.
Getting around. Dubrovnik 60, Rotorua 30: Dubrovnik leads by 30 points.
Shopping & style. Dubrovnik 25, Rotorua 22: Dubrovnik leads by 3 points.
Affordability. Dubrovnik 28, Rotorua 36: Rotorua leads by 8 points.
Live music & performing arts. Dubrovnik 25, Rotorua 30: Rotorua leads by 5 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Dubrovnik 32, Rotorua 86: Rotorua leads by 54 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Dubrovnik and Rotorua.

Your match

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

Dubrovnik
Best match
49match

Wins on beaches and culture and sights 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.

Dubrovnik in July

29 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
29 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
15 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°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
DubrovnikRotorua

Where the figures come from

Dubrovnik 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.

Dubrovnik's sunshine is measured 83 km from the centre, at Mostar.

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. Dubrovnik: 1999-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Dubrovnik / Cilipi (15.3 km from centre). Rotorua: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureDubrovnikRotorua
Official languageCroatianEnglish, New Zealand Sign Language, Māori
CurrencyEuro (EUR)New Zealand Dollar (NZD)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+12, UTC+13 in summer
Emergency number112111
Elevation10 m280 m
Main airportDubrovnik Ruđer Bošković Airport (DBV)16 km from centre76 non-stop destinationsRotorua Regional Airport (ROT)7 km from centre3 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureDubrovnikRotorua
City population41,56258,500
People per km²-22
Museums within 10 km71
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km30
Swim season, months above 21 °C5 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Dubrovnik 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). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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. 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.