VacationSelector
The floating torii of Itsukushima at Miyajima, Hiroshima
HiroshimaThe floating torii of Itsukushima at Miyajima
The old Bath House in the Government Gardens, Rotorua
RotoruaThe old Bath House in the Government Gardens

Photos: Hiroshima by Guohua Song, Pexels License; Rotorua by W. Bulach, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Hiroshima 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 Hiroshima for

  • getting around
  • day trips
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Hiroshima’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. Hiroshima 30, Rotorua 33: Rotorua leads by 3 points.
Food & drink. Hiroshima 66, Rotorua 33: Hiroshima leads by 33 points.
Culture & sights. Hiroshima 60, Rotorua 38: Hiroshima leads by 22 points.
Nightlife. Hiroshima 45, Rotorua 14: Hiroshima leads by 31 points.
Nature & outdoors. Hiroshima 62, Rotorua 86: Rotorua leads by 24 points.
Day trips. Hiroshima 80, Rotorua 45: Hiroshima leads by 35 points.
Good for families. Hiroshima 60, Rotorua 68: Rotorua leads by 8 points.
Getting around. Hiroshima 74, Rotorua 30: Hiroshima leads by 44 points.
Shopping & style. Hiroshima 52, Rotorua 22: Hiroshima leads by 30 points.
Affordability. Hiroshima 58, Rotorua 36: Hiroshima leads by 22 points.
Live music & performing arts. Hiroshima 38, Rotorua 30: Hiroshima leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Hiroshima 50, Rotorua 86: Rotorua leads by 36 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Hiroshima and Rotorua.

Your match

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

Hiroshima
Best match
56match

Wins on getting around and day trips 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.

Hiroshima in July

31 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
299 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
24 °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°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
HiroshimaRotorua

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. Hiroshima: 1991-2020 normals, Hiroshima (1.7 km from centre). Rotorua: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureHiroshimaRotorua
Official languageJapaneseEnglish, New Zealand Sign Language, Māori
CurrencyYen (JPY)New Zealand Dollar (NZD)
SocketsAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the regionI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+9UTC+12, UTC+13 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 110, fire 119111
Elevation3 m280 m
Main airportHiroshima Airport (HIJ)43 km from centre10 non-stop destinationsRotorua Regional Airport (ROT)7 km from centre3 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureHiroshimaRotorua
City population1,198,02158,500
People per km²1,32422
Museums within 10 km181
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °C4 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Hiroshima or Rotorua somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national 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. Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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.