VacationSelector
Hobart below kunanyi/Mount Wellington, Hobart
HobartHobart below kunanyi/Mount Wellington
The old Bath House in the Government Gardens, Rotorua
RotoruaThe old Bath House in the Government Gardens

Photos: Hobart by Gary Houston, CC0; Rotorua by W. Bulach, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Hobart 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 Hobart for

  • food and drink
  • culture and sights
  • nightlife

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

Choose Rotorua for

  • wellness
  • families
  • beaches

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. Hobart 30, Rotorua 33: Rotorua leads by 3 points.
Food & drink. Hobart 60, Rotorua 33: Hobart leads by 27 points.
Culture & sights. Hobart 56, Rotorua 38: Hobart leads by 18 points.
Nightlife. Hobart 30, Rotorua 14: Hobart leads by 16 points.
Nature & outdoors. Hobart 85, Rotorua 86: Rotorua leads by 1 points.
Day trips. Hobart 60, Rotorua 45: Hobart leads by 15 points.
Good for families. Hobart 56, Rotorua 68: Rotorua leads by 12 points.
Getting around. Hobart 45, Rotorua 30: Hobart leads by 15 points.
Shopping & style. Hobart 38, Rotorua 22: Hobart leads by 16 points.
Affordability. Hobart 35, Rotorua 36: Rotorua leads by 1 points.
Live music & performing arts. Hobart 45, Rotorua 30: Hobart leads by 15 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Hobart 40, Rotorua 86: Rotorua leads by 46 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Hobart
Best match
48match

Wins on food and drink 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.

Hobart in July

13 °Cdaytime high
5 °Cnight-time low
42 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
13 °Csea
9 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°5°10°15°20°25°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
HobartRotorua

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. Hobart: 1991-2020 normals, Hobart (2.3 km from centre). Rotorua: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureHobartRotorua
Official languageEnglishEnglish, New Zealand Sign Language, Māori
CurrencyAustralian Dollar (AUD)New Zealand Dollar (NZD)
SocketsI230 V, 50 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+10, UTC+11 in summerUTC+12, UTC+13 in summer
Emergency number000111
Elevation54 m280 m
Main airportHobart International Airport (HBA)17 km from centre9 non-stop destinationsRotorua Regional Airport (ROT)7 km from centre3 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureHobartRotorua
City population197,45158,500
People per km²11622
Museums within 10 km81
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °CNoneNone

Where else could you go?

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