VacationSelector
Big Ben and Westminster Bridge, London
LondonBig Ben and Westminster Bridge
The old Bath House in the Government Gardens, Rotorua
RotoruaThe old Bath House in the Government Gardens

Photos: London by AXP Photography, Pexels License; Rotorua by W. Bulach, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

London 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 London for

  • nightlife
  • shopping
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Rotorua for

  • wellness
  • nature and the outdoors
  • prices

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. London 25, Rotorua 33: Rotorua leads by 8 points.
Food & drink. London 84, Rotorua 33: London leads by 51 points.
Culture & sights. London 94, Rotorua 38: London leads by 56 points.
Nightlife. London 88, Rotorua 14: London leads by 74 points.
Nature & outdoors. London 57, Rotorua 86: Rotorua leads by 29 points.
Day trips. London 90, Rotorua 45: London leads by 45 points.
Good for families. London 82, Rotorua 68: London leads by 14 points.
Getting around. London 85, Rotorua 30: London leads by 55 points.
Shopping & style. London 95, Rotorua 22: London leads by 73 points.
Affordability. London 15, Rotorua 36: Rotorua leads by 21 points.
Live music & performing arts. London 98, Rotorua 30: London leads by 68 points.
Wellness & relaxation. London 40, Rotorua 86: Rotorua leads by 46 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

London
Best match
71match

Wins on nightlife and shopping 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.

London in July

23 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
46 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
No seasea
16 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
LondonRotorua

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. London: 1992-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, London Weather Centre (1.3 km from centre). Rotorua: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureLondonRotorua
Official languageEnglishEnglish, New Zealand Sign Language, Māori
CurrencyPound Sterling (GBP)New Zealand Dollar (NZD)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC+12, UTC+13 in summer
Emergency number112 or 999111
Elevation4 m280 m
Main airportLondon Heathrow Airport (LHR)23 km from centre224 non-stop destinationsRotorua Regional Airport (ROT)7 km from centre3 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year8 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureLondonRotorua
City population8,799,72858,500
People per km²5,59822
Museums within 10 km2161
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km40
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 London 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.