VacationSelector
The Turtle Tower in Hoan Kiem Lake, Hanoi
HanoiThe Turtle Tower in Hoan Kiem Lake
The old Bath House in the Government Gardens, Rotorua
RotoruaThe old Bath House in the Government Gardens

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

Hanoi 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 Hanoi for

  • prices
  • food and drink
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Hanoi’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. Hanoi 6, Rotorua 33: Rotorua leads by 27 points.
Food & drink. Hanoi 85, Rotorua 33: Hanoi leads by 52 points.
Culture & sights. Hanoi 72, Rotorua 38: Hanoi leads by 34 points.
Nightlife. Hanoi 50, Rotorua 14: Hanoi leads by 36 points.
Nature & outdoors. Hanoi 52, Rotorua 86: Rotorua leads by 34 points.
Day trips. Hanoi 58, Rotorua 45: Hanoi leads by 13 points.
Good for families. Hanoi 35, Rotorua 68: Rotorua leads by 33 points.
Getting around. Hanoi 36, Rotorua 30: Hanoi leads by 6 points.
Shopping & style. Hanoi 50, Rotorua 22: Hanoi leads by 28 points.
Affordability. Hanoi 98, Rotorua 36: Hanoi leads by 62 points.
Live music & performing arts. Hanoi 40, Rotorua 30: Hanoi leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Hanoi 46, Rotorua 86: Rotorua leads by 40 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Hanoi and Rotorua.

Your match

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

Hanoi
Best match
52match

Wins on prices and food and drink 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.

Hanoi in July

34 °Cdaytime high
27 °Cnight-time low
311 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
No seasea
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
HanoiRotorua

Where the figures come from

Hanoi's sunshine is measured 86 km from the centre, at Phu Lien.

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. Hanoi: 1991-2020 normals, Ha Noi (4.4 km from centre). Rotorua: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureHanoiRotorua
Official languageVietnameseEnglish, New Zealand Sign Language, Māori
CurrencyDong (VND)New Zealand Dollar (NZD)
SocketsACFG220 V, 50 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+7UTC+12, UTC+13 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 113, ambulance 115, fire 114111
Elevation10 m280 m
Main airportNoi Bai International Airport (HAN)22 km from centre91 non-stop destinationsRotorua Regional Airport (ROT)7 km from centre3 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-12 days

By the numbers

MeasureHanoiRotorua
City population8,717,60058,500
People per km²2,59522
Museums within 10 km141
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C-None

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Hanoi 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. 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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.