VacationSelector
Palacio Salvo under a blue sky, Montevideo
MontevideoPalacio Salvo under a blue sky
The old Bath House in the Government Gardens, Rotorua
RotoruaThe old Bath House in the Government Gardens

Photos: Montevideo by Andrés Franchi Ugart…, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Rotorua by W. Bulach, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Montevideo 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 Montevideo for

  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Montevideo’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. Montevideo 55, Rotorua 33: Montevideo leads by 22 points.
Food & drink. Montevideo 57, Rotorua 33: Montevideo leads by 24 points.
Culture & sights. Montevideo 54, Rotorua 38: Montevideo leads by 16 points.
Nightlife. Montevideo 50, Rotorua 14: Montevideo leads by 36 points.
Nature & outdoors. Montevideo 34, Rotorua 86: Rotorua leads by 52 points.
Day trips. Montevideo 55, Rotorua 45: Montevideo leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Montevideo 55, Rotorua 68: Rotorua leads by 13 points.
Getting around. Montevideo 54, Rotorua 30: Montevideo leads by 24 points.
Shopping & style. Montevideo 36, Rotorua 22: Montevideo leads by 14 points.
Affordability. Montevideo 42, Rotorua 36: Montevideo leads by 6 points.
Live music & performing arts. Montevideo 57, Rotorua 30: Montevideo leads by 27 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Montevideo 38, Rotorua 86: Rotorua leads by 48 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Montevideo
Best match
49match

Wins on nightlife and live music and the arts 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.

Montevideo in July

15 °Cdaytime high
6 °Cnight-time low
99 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
11 °Csea
10 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°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
MontevideoRotorua

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. Montevideo: 1991-2020 normals, Carrasco (19.2 km from centre). Rotorua: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureMontevideoRotorua
Official language-English, New Zealand Sign Language, Māori
CurrencyPeso Uruguayo (UYU)New Zealand Dollar (NZD)
SocketsCFIL230 V, 50 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-3UTC+12, UTC+13 in summer
Emergency number911111
Elevation41 m280 m
Main airportCarrasco General Cesáreo L. Berisso International Airport (MVD)17 km from centre15 non-stop destinationsRotorua Regional Airport (ROT)7 km from centre3 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year15 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureMontevideoRotorua
City population1,302,95458,500
People per km²1,78522
Museums within 10 km361
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C4 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Montevideo 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). 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. 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.