VacationSelector
The Teatro Amazonas, Manaus
ManausThe Teatro Amazonas
The old Bath House in the Government Gardens, Rotorua
RotoruaThe old Bath House in the Government Gardens

Photos: Manaus by Jardelsliumba, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Rotorua by W. Bulach, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Manaus 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 Manaus for

  • nightlife
  • prices
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Rotorua for

  • wellness
  • day trips
  • 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. Manaus 38, Rotorua 33: Manaus leads by 5 points.
Food & drink. Manaus 56, Rotorua 33: Manaus leads by 23 points.
Culture & sights. Manaus 46, Rotorua 38: Manaus leads by 8 points.
Nightlife. Manaus 42, Rotorua 14: Manaus leads by 28 points.
Nature & outdoors. Manaus and Rotorua are level on 86.
Day trips. Manaus 12, Rotorua 45: Rotorua leads by 33 points.
Good for families. Manaus 35, Rotorua 68: Rotorua leads by 33 points.
Getting around. Manaus 27, Rotorua 30: Rotorua leads by 3 points.
Shopping & style. Manaus 36, Rotorua 22: Manaus leads by 14 points.
Affordability. Manaus 63, Rotorua 36: Manaus leads by 27 points.
Live music & performing arts. Manaus 54, Rotorua 30: Manaus leads by 24 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Manaus 20, Rotorua 86: Rotorua leads by 66 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Manaus and Rotorua.

Your match

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

Too close to call, level with your weighting

Manaus
43match

Wins on nightlife and prices with your weighting.

Rotorua
43match

Wins on wellness and day trips with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Manaus in July

33 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
74 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
No seasea
12 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
ManausRotorua

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. Manaus: 1991-2020 normals, Manaus (1.7 km from centre). Rotorua: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureManausRotorua
Official languagePortugueseEnglish, New Zealand Sign Language, Māori
CurrencyBrazilian Real (BRL)New Zealand Dollar (NZD)
SocketsCN60 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-4UTC+12, UTC+13 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 190, ambulance 192, fire 193111
Elevation92 m280 m
Main airportEduardo Gomes International Airport (MAO)9 km from centre21 non-stop destinationsRotorua Regional Airport (ROT)7 km from centre3 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureManausRotorua
City population2,303,73258,500
People per km²20222
Museums within 10 km131
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
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 Manaus 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.