VacationSelector
Cinderella Castle, Magic Kingdom, Orlando
OrlandoCinderella Castle, Magic Kingdom
The old Bath House in the Government Gardens, Rotorua
RotoruaThe old Bath House in the Government Gardens

Photos: Orlando by Michael Gray, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Rotorua by W. Bulach, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Orlando 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 Orlando for

  • shopping
  • families
  • nightlife

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

Choose Rotorua for

  • wellness
  • nature and the outdoors
  • getting around

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. Orlando 42, Rotorua 33: Orlando leads by 9 points.
Food & drink. Orlando 48, Rotorua 33: Orlando leads by 15 points.
Culture & sights. Orlando 22, Rotorua 38: Rotorua leads by 16 points.
Nightlife. Orlando 40, Rotorua 14: Orlando leads by 26 points.
Nature & outdoors. Orlando 46, Rotorua 86: Rotorua leads by 40 points.
Day trips. Orlando 58, Rotorua 45: Orlando leads by 13 points.
Good for families. Orlando 98, Rotorua 68: Orlando leads by 30 points.
Getting around. Orlando 8, Rotorua 30: Rotorua leads by 22 points.
Shopping & style. Orlando 58, Rotorua 22: Orlando leads by 36 points.
Affordability. Orlando and Rotorua are level on 36.
Live music & performing arts. Orlando 40, Rotorua 30: Orlando leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Orlando 32, Rotorua 86: Rotorua leads by 54 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Orlando
44match

Wins on shopping and families with your weighting.

Rotorua
43match

Wins on wellness and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Orlando in July

33 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
189 mmrain in the month
No seasea
14 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

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
OrlandoRotorua

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. Orlando: 1991-2020 normals, Orlando Airport (14.2 km from centre). Rotorua: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureOrlandoRotorua
Official language-English, New Zealand Sign Language, Māori
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)New Zealand Dollar (NZD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC+12, UTC+13 in summer
Emergency number911111
Elevation34 m280 m
Main airportOrlando International Airport (MCO)14 km from centre169 non-stop destinationsRotorua Regional Airport (ROT)7 km from centre3 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureOrlandoRotorua
City population334,85458,500
People per km²1,08622
Museums within 10 km111
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
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 Orlando 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.