VacationSelector
Elizabeth Quay and the centre of Perth, Perth
PerthElizabeth Quay and the centre of Perth
The old Bath House in the Government Gardens, Rotorua
RotoruaThe old Bath House in the Government Gardens

Photos: Perth by Samuel Wiki, CC BY 4.0, cropped; Rotorua by W. Bulach, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Perth 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 Perth for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • food and drink

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

Choose Rotorua for

  • wellness
  • nature and the outdoors
  • prices

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. Perth 86, Rotorua 33: Perth leads by 53 points.
Food & drink. Perth 58, Rotorua 33: Perth leads by 25 points.
Culture & sights. Perth 42, Rotorua 38: Perth leads by 4 points.
Nightlife. Perth 42, Rotorua 14: Perth leads by 28 points.
Nature & outdoors. Perth 72, Rotorua 86: Rotorua leads by 14 points.
Day trips. Perth 48, Rotorua 45: Perth leads by 3 points.
Good for families. Perth 74, Rotorua 68: Perth leads by 6 points.
Getting around. Perth 55, Rotorua 30: Perth leads by 25 points.
Shopping & style. Perth 44, Rotorua 22: Perth leads by 22 points.
Affordability. Perth 28, Rotorua 36: Rotorua leads by 8 points.
Live music & performing arts. Perth 50, Rotorua 30: Perth leads by 20 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Perth 38, Rotorua 86: Rotorua leads by 48 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Perth and Rotorua.

Your match

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

Perth
Best match
53match

Wins on beaches and nightlife 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.

Perth in July

19 °Cdaytime high
8 °Cnight-time low
145 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
20 °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°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
PerthRotorua

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. Perth: 1991-2020 normals, Perth (7.3 km from centre). Rotorua: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasurePerthRotorua
Official languageEnglishEnglish, New Zealand Sign Language, Māori
CurrencyAustralian Dollar (AUD)New Zealand Dollar (NZD)
SocketsI230 V, 50 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+8UTC+12, UTC+13 in summer
Emergency number000111
Elevation2 m280 m
Main airportPerth International Airport (PER)10 km from centre49 non-stop destinationsRotorua Regional Airport (ROT)7 km from centre3 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasurePerthRotorua
City population2,141,83458,500
People per km²33422
Museums within 10 km151
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C5 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

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