VacationSelector
The Grand Lisboa above the Macau skyline, Macau
MacauThe Grand Lisboa above the Macau skyline
The old Bath House in the Government Gardens, Rotorua
RotoruaThe old Bath House in the Government Gardens

Photos: Macau by tian Jin, Pexels License; Rotorua by W. Bulach, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Macau 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 Macau for

  • food and drink
  • shopping
  • getting around

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

Choose Rotorua for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness
  • 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. Macau 24, Rotorua 33: Rotorua leads by 9 points.
Food & drink. Macau 77, Rotorua 33: Macau leads by 44 points.
Culture & sights. Macau 62, Rotorua 38: Macau leads by 24 points.
Nightlife. Macau 40, Rotorua 14: Macau leads by 26 points.
Nature & outdoors. Macau 5, Rotorua 86: Rotorua leads by 81 points.
Day trips. Macau 52, Rotorua 45: Macau leads by 7 points.
Good for families. Macau 48, Rotorua 68: Rotorua leads by 20 points.
Getting around. Macau 60, Rotorua 30: Macau leads by 30 points.
Shopping & style. Macau 58, Rotorua 22: Macau leads by 36 points.
Affordability. Macau 44, Rotorua 36: Macau leads by 8 points.
Live music & performing arts. Macau 36, Rotorua 30: Macau leads by 6 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Macau 40, Rotorua 86: Rotorua leads by 46 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Macau and Rotorua.

Your match

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

Macau
Best match
46match

Wins on food and drink and shopping with your weighting.

Rotorua
43match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and wellness with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Macau in July

32 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
281 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
29 °Csea
13 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

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
MacauRotorua

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. Macau: 1991-2020 normals, Taipa (3.9 km from centre). Rotorua: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureMacauRotorua
Official languagePortuguese, Cantonese, Standard ChineseEnglish, New Zealand Sign Language, Māori
CurrencyPataca (MOP)New Zealand Dollar (NZD)
SocketsFGM220 V, 50 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+8UTC+12, UTC+13 in summer
Emergency number999111
Elevation22 m280 m
Main airportMacau International Airport (MFM)7 km from centre41 non-stop destinationsRotorua Regional Airport (ROT)7 km from centre3 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-12 days

By the numbers

MeasureMacauRotorua
City population682,10058,500
People per km²5,91622
Museums within 10 km281
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C8 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Macau 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). 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). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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.