VacationSelector
A jetty on the lagoon, Faro
FaroA jetty on the lagoon
The old Bath House in the Government Gardens, Rotorua
RotoruaThe old Bath House in the Government Gardens

Photos: Faro by Efrem Efre, Pexels License; Rotorua by W. Bulach, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Faro 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 Faro for

  • beaches
  • getting around
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Faro’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. Faro 74, Rotorua 33: Faro leads by 41 points.
Food & drink. Faro 48, Rotorua 33: Faro leads by 15 points.
Culture & sights. Faro 35, Rotorua 38: Rotorua leads by 3 points.
Nightlife. Faro 32, Rotorua 14: Faro leads by 18 points.
Nature & outdoors. Faro 62, Rotorua 86: Rotorua leads by 24 points.
Day trips. Faro 64, Rotorua 45: Faro leads by 19 points.
Good for families. Faro 60, Rotorua 68: Rotorua leads by 8 points.
Getting around. Faro 60, Rotorua 30: Faro leads by 30 points.
Shopping & style. Faro 35, Rotorua 22: Faro leads by 13 points.
Affordability. Faro 60, Rotorua 36: Faro leads by 24 points.
Live music & performing arts. Faro and Rotorua are level on 30.
Wellness & relaxation. Faro 33, Rotorua 86: Rotorua leads by 53 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Faro and Rotorua.

Your match

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

Faro
Best match
49match

Wins on beaches and getting around 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.

Faro in July

29 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
21 °Csea
14 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

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
FaroRotorua

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. Faro: 1991-2020 normals, Faro / Aeroporto (2.8 km from centre). Rotorua: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureFaroRotorua
Official languagePortugueseEnglish, New Zealand Sign Language, Māori
CurrencyEuro (EUR)New Zealand Dollar (NZD)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC+12, UTC+13 in summer
Emergency number112111
Elevation10 m280 m
Main airportFaro - Gago Coutinho International Airport (FAO)3 km from centre91 non-stop destinationsRotorua Regional Airport (ROT)7 km from centre3 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureFaroRotorua
City population64,56058,500
People per km²31922
Museums within 10 km21
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C3 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Faro 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.