VacationSelector
The Koutoubia Mosque from its gardens, Marrakech
MarrakechThe Koutoubia Mosque from its gardens
The old Bath House in the Government Gardens, Rotorua
RotoruaThe old Bath House in the Government Gardens

Photos: Marrakech by Jorge Franganillo, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Rotorua by W. Bulach, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Marrakech 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 Marrakech for

  • shopping
  • culture and sights
  • prices

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

Choose Rotorua for

  • families
  • beaches
  • day trips

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. Marrakech 7, Rotorua 33: Rotorua leads by 26 points.
Food & drink. Marrakech 64, Rotorua 33: Marrakech leads by 31 points.
Culture & sights. Marrakech 76, Rotorua 38: Marrakech leads by 38 points.
Nightlife. Marrakech 33, Rotorua 14: Marrakech leads by 19 points.
Nature & outdoors. Marrakech 70, Rotorua 86: Rotorua leads by 16 points.
Day trips. Marrakech 28, Rotorua 45: Rotorua leads by 17 points.
Good for families. Marrakech 25, Rotorua 68: Rotorua leads by 43 points.
Getting around. Marrakech 38, Rotorua 30: Marrakech leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. Marrakech 72, Rotorua 22: Marrakech leads by 50 points.
Affordability. Marrakech 72, Rotorua 36: Marrakech leads by 36 points.
Live music & performing arts. Marrakech 25, Rotorua 30: Rotorua leads by 5 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Marrakech 75, Rotorua 86: Rotorua leads by 11 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Marrakech
Best match
49match

Wins on shopping and culture and sights with your weighting.

Rotorua
43match

Wins on families and beaches with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Marrakech in July

38 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
No seasea
14 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

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
MarrakechRotorua

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. Marrakech: 1991-2020 normals, Marrakech (5.1 km from centre). Rotorua: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureMarrakechRotorua
Official languageArabic, Standard Moroccan TamazightEnglish, New Zealand Sign Language, Māori
CurrencyMoroccan Dirham (MAD)New Zealand Dollar (NZD)
SocketsCE50 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1UTC+12, UTC+13 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 19/112, ambulance 15, fire 15111
Elevation465 m280 m
Main airportMarrakesh Menara Airport (RAK)6 km from centre113 non-stop destinationsRotorua Regional Airport (ROT)7 km from centre3 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureMarrakechRotorua
City population1,002,69758,500
People per km²4,36022
Museums within 10 km141
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 Marrakech 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). 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. 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.