VacationSelector
A lifeguard stand on South Beach, Miami
MiamiA lifeguard stand on South Beach
Erasmus Bridge and the skyline, Rotterdam
RotterdamErasmus Bridge and the skyline

Photos: Miami by Radomianin, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Rotterdam by Bas Geerlings, Pexels License.

Miami or Rotterdam?

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 Miami for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • food and drink

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

Choose Rotterdam for

  • day trips
  • getting around
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Rotterdam’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. Miami 90, Rotterdam 27: Miami leads by 63 points.
Food & drink. Miami 72, Rotterdam 52: Miami leads by 20 points.
Culture & sights. Miami 57, Rotterdam 58: Rotterdam leads by 1 points.
Nightlife. Miami 82, Rotterdam 52: Miami leads by 30 points.
Nature & outdoors. Miami 64, Rotterdam 44: Miami leads by 20 points.
Day trips. Miami 42, Rotterdam 85: Rotterdam leads by 43 points.
Good for families. Miami 64, Rotterdam 66: Rotterdam leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Miami 35, Rotterdam 78: Rotterdam leads by 43 points.
Shopping & style. Miami 71, Rotterdam 55: Miami leads by 16 points.
Affordability. Miami 27, Rotterdam 38: Rotterdam leads by 11 points.
Live music & performing arts. Miami 55, Rotterdam 58: Rotterdam leads by 3 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Miami 44, Rotterdam 42: Miami leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Miami and Rotterdam.

Your match

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

Miami
Best match
59match

Wins on beaches and nightlife with your weighting.

Rotterdam
55match

Wins on day trips and getting around with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Miami in July

33 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
186 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
29 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Rotterdam in July

22 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
91 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
MiamiRotterdam

Where the figures come from

Rotterdam has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

Rotterdam's sunshine is measured 52 km from the centre, at De Bilt.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Miami: 1991-2020 normals, Miami International Airport (10 km from centre). Rotterdam: 1993-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Rotterdam Airport Zestienhoven (3.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMiamiRotterdam
Official language-Dutch
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation2 m10 m
Main airportMiami International Airport (MIA)7 km from centre198 non-stop destinationsRotterdam The Hague Airport (RTM)5 km from centre53 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureMiamiRotterdam
City population442,241664,311
People per km²3,0462,080
Museums within 10 km1740
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km05
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 Miami or Rotterdam 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. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.