VacationSelector
The Manila Central Post Office on the Pasig, Manila
ManilaThe Manila Central Post Office on the Pasig
The old Bath House in the Government Gardens, Rotorua
RotoruaThe old Bath House in the Government Gardens

Photos: Manila by Kenneth Surillo, Pexels License; Rotorua by W. Bulach, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Manila 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 Manila for

  • nightlife
  • prices
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Manila’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. Manila 12, Rotorua 33: Rotorua leads by 21 points.
Food & drink. Manila 64, Rotorua 33: Manila leads by 31 points.
Culture & sights. Manila 54, Rotorua 38: Manila leads by 16 points.
Nightlife. Manila 64, Rotorua 14: Manila leads by 50 points.
Nature & outdoors. Manila 40, Rotorua 86: Rotorua leads by 46 points.
Day trips. Manila 42, Rotorua 45: Rotorua leads by 3 points.
Good for families. Manila 42, Rotorua 68: Rotorua leads by 26 points.
Getting around. Manila 26, Rotorua 30: Rotorua leads by 4 points.
Shopping & style. Manila 60, Rotorua 22: Manila leads by 38 points.
Affordability. Manila 77, Rotorua 36: Manila leads by 41 points.
Live music & performing arts. Manila 50, Rotorua 30: Manila leads by 20 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Manila 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: Manila and Rotorua.

Your match

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

Manila
Best match
48match

Wins on nightlife and prices 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.

Manila in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
487 mmrain in the month
29 °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

0200400600JFMAMJJASOND
ManilaRotorua

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. Manila: 1991-2020 normals, Science Garden (6 km from centre). Rotorua: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureManilaRotorua
Official languageEnglish, Filipino, TaglishEnglish, New Zealand Sign Language, Māori
CurrencyPhilippine Peso (PHP)New Zealand Dollar (NZD)
SocketsABC220 V, 60 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+8UTC+12, UTC+13 in summer
Emergency number911111
Elevation9 m280 m
Main airportNinoy Aquino International Airport (MNL)11 km from centre90 non-stop destinationsRotorua Regional Airport (ROT)7 km from centre3 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year18 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureManilaRotorua
City population1,902,59058,500
People per km²76,10422
Museums within 10 km271
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
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 Manila 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). 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. 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.