VacationSelector
The Outback, with the Tenmile Range in the distance, Keystone
KeystoneThe Outback, with the Tenmile Range in the distance
The old Bath House in the Government Gardens, Rotorua
RotoruaThe old Bath House in the Government Gardens

Photos: Keystone by Rudi Riet, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Rotorua by W. Bulach, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Keystone 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 Keystone for

  • getting around
  • day trips
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Rotorua for

  • wellness
  • culture and sights
  • 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. Keystone 5, Rotorua 33: Rotorua leads by 28 points.
Food & drink. Keystone 27, Rotorua 33: Rotorua leads by 6 points.
Culture & sights. Keystone 7, Rotorua 38: Rotorua leads by 31 points.
Nightlife. Keystone 12, Rotorua 14: Rotorua leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Keystone 93, Rotorua 86: Keystone leads by 7 points.
Day trips. Keystone 55, Rotorua 45: Keystone leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Keystone 66, Rotorua 68: Rotorua leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Keystone 50, Rotorua 30: Keystone leads by 20 points.
Shopping & style. Keystone and Rotorua are level on 22.
Affordability. Keystone 12, Rotorua 36: Rotorua leads by 24 points.
Live music & performing arts. Keystone 22, Rotorua 30: Rotorua leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Keystone 32, Rotorua 86: Rotorua leads by 54 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Keystone
34match

Wins on getting around and day trips with your weighting.

Rotorua
Best match
43match

Wins on wellness and culture and sights with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Keystone in July

21 °Cdaytime high
5 °Cnight-time low
39 mmrain in the month
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Rotorua in July

11 °Cdaytime high
6 °Cnight-time low
113 mmrain in the month
15 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
KeystoneRotorua

Where the figures come from

Keystone's temperatures are measured 51 km from the centre, at Leadville / Stringtown.

Keystone's station stands 232 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer than the figures say.

Keystone 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.

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. Keystone: 2006-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Leadville / Stringtown (50.8 km from centre). Rotorua: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureKeystoneRotorua
Official language-English, New Zealand Sign Language, Māori
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)New Zealand Dollar (NZD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-7, UTC-6 in summerUTC+12, UTC+13 in summer
Emergency number911111
Elevation2,796 m280 m
Main airportDenver International Airport (DEN)116 km from centre231 non-stop destinationsRotorua Regional Airport (ROT)7 km from centre3 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureKeystoneRotorua
City population1,36958,500
People per km²1322
Museums within 10 km01
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
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 Keystone 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). 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.