VacationSelector
The Iguazu Falls in the green jungle, Puerto Iguazu
Puerto IguazuThe Iguazu Falls in the green jungle
The old Bath House in the Government Gardens, Rotorua
RotoruaThe old Bath House in the Government Gardens

Photos: Puerto Iguazu by Muhammed Ballan, Pexels License; Rotorua by W. Bulach, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Puerto Iguazu 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 Puerto Iguazu for

  • getting around
  • prices
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Rotorua for

  • wellness
  • culture and sights
  • beaches

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. Puerto Iguazu 5, Rotorua 33: Rotorua leads by 28 points.
Food & drink. Puerto Iguazu 28, Rotorua 33: Rotorua leads by 5 points.
Culture & sights. Puerto Iguazu 9, Rotorua 38: Rotorua leads by 29 points.
Nightlife. Puerto Iguazu and Rotorua are level on 14.
Nature & outdoors. Puerto Iguazu 95, Rotorua 86: Puerto Iguazu leads by 9 points.
Day trips. Puerto Iguazu 33, Rotorua 45: Rotorua leads by 12 points.
Good for families. Puerto Iguazu 55, Rotorua 68: Rotorua leads by 13 points.
Getting around. Puerto Iguazu 54, Rotorua 30: Puerto Iguazu leads by 24 points.
Shopping & style. Puerto Iguazu 17, Rotorua 22: Rotorua leads by 5 points.
Affordability. Puerto Iguazu 48, Rotorua 36: Puerto Iguazu leads by 12 points.
Live music & performing arts. Puerto Iguazu 7, Rotorua 30: Rotorua leads by 23 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Puerto Iguazu 34, Rotorua 86: Rotorua leads by 52 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Puerto Iguazu and Rotorua.

Your match

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

Puerto Iguazu
33match

Wins on getting around and prices with your weighting.

Rotorua
Best match
43match

Wins on wellness and culture and sights with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Puerto Iguazu in July

22 °Cdaytime high
11 °Cnight-time low
103 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
No seasea
11 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

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Puerto IguazuRotorua

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. Puerto Iguazu: 1991-2020 normals, Iguazu Aerodrome (17.8 km from centre). Rotorua: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasurePuerto IguazuRotorua
Official languageSpanishEnglish, New Zealand Sign Language, Māori
CurrencyArgentine Peso (ARS)New Zealand Dollar (NZD)
SocketsCI220 V, 50 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC-3UTC+12, UTC+13 in summer
Emergency number117 or 911111
Elevation162 m280 m
Main airportCataratas Del Iguazú International Airport (IGR)18 km from centre8 non-stop destinationsRotorua Regional Airport (ROT)7 km from centre3 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasurePuerto IguazuRotorua
City population54,90358,500
People per km²-22
Museums within 10 km01
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 Puerto Iguazu 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.