VacationSelector
The white temple of Wat Kaew Korawaram in Krabi Town, Krabi
KrabiThe white temple of Wat Kaew Korawaram in Krabi Town
The old Bath House in the Government Gardens, Rotorua
RotoruaThe old Bath House in the Government Gardens

Photos: Krabi by Maksym Kozlenko, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Rotorua by W. Bulach, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Krabi 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 Krabi for

  • beaches
  • prices
  • nightlife

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

Choose Rotorua for

  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts
  • wellness

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. Krabi 87, Rotorua 33: Krabi leads by 54 points.
Food & drink. Krabi 50, Rotorua 33: Krabi leads by 17 points.
Culture & sights. Krabi 20, Rotorua 38: Rotorua leads by 18 points.
Nightlife. Krabi 33, Rotorua 14: Krabi leads by 19 points.
Nature & outdoors. Krabi 85, Rotorua 86: Rotorua leads by 1 points.
Day trips. Krabi 40, Rotorua 45: Rotorua leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Krabi 55, Rotorua 68: Rotorua leads by 13 points.
Getting around. Krabi and Rotorua are level on 30.
Shopping & style. Krabi 20, Rotorua 22: Rotorua leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Krabi 78, Rotorua 36: Krabi leads by 42 points.
Live music & performing arts. Krabi 12, Rotorua 30: Rotorua leads by 18 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Krabi 72, Rotorua 86: Rotorua leads by 14 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Krabi and Rotorua.

Your match

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

Krabi
Best match
49match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

Rotorua
43match

Wins on culture and sights and live music and the arts with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Krabi in July

32 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
212 mmrain in the month
30 °Csea
13 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

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
KrabiRotorua

Where the figures come from

Krabi's temperatures are measured 67 km from the centre, at Phuket Airport.

Krabi 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. Krabi: 1991-2020 normals, Phuket Airport (66.6 km from centre). Rotorua: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureKrabiRotorua
Official languageThaiEnglish, New Zealand Sign Language, Māori
CurrencyBaht (THB)New Zealand Dollar (NZD)
SocketsABCF220 V, 50 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+7UTC+12, UTC+13 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199111
Elevation16 m280 m
Main airportKrabi International Airport (KBV)9 km from centre14 non-stop destinationsRotorua Regional Airport (ROT)7 km from centre3 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-12 days

By the numbers

MeasureKrabiRotorua
City population30,49958,500
People per km²-22
Museums within 10 km01
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Krabi 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). 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. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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.