VacationSelector
Château Frontenac from Dufferin Terrace, Quebec City
Quebec CityChâteau Frontenac from Dufferin Terrace
The old Bath House in the Government Gardens, Rotorua
RotoruaThe old Bath House in the Government Gardens

Photos: Quebec City by Jeangagnon, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Rotorua by W. Bulach, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Quebec City 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 Quebec City for

  • culture and sights
  • nightlife
  • food and drink

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

Choose Rotorua for

  • wellness
  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors

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. Quebec City 18, Rotorua 33: Rotorua leads by 15 points.
Food & drink. Quebec City 57, Rotorua 33: Quebec City leads by 24 points.
Culture & sights. Quebec City 70, Rotorua 38: Quebec City leads by 32 points.
Nightlife. Quebec City 42, Rotorua 14: Quebec City leads by 28 points.
Nature & outdoors. Quebec City 79, Rotorua 86: Rotorua leads by 7 points.
Day trips. Quebec City 58, Rotorua 45: Quebec City leads by 13 points.
Good for families. Quebec City 64, Rotorua 68: Rotorua leads by 4 points.
Getting around. Quebec City 50, Rotorua 30: Quebec City leads by 20 points.
Shopping & style. Quebec City 45, Rotorua 22: Quebec City leads by 23 points.
Affordability. Quebec City 45, Rotorua 36: Quebec City leads by 9 points.
Live music & performing arts. Quebec City 52, Rotorua 30: Quebec City leads by 22 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Quebec City 55, Rotorua 86: Rotorua leads by 31 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Quebec City
Best match
53match

Wins on culture and sights and nightlife with your weighting.

Rotorua
43match

Wins on wellness and beaches with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Quebec City in July

25 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
119 mmrain in the month
No seasea
16 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

-10°0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
Quebec CityRotorua

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. Quebec City: 1991-2020 normals, Beauport (3.2 km from centre). Rotorua: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureQuebec CityRotorua
Official languageFrench, EnglishEnglish, New Zealand Sign Language, Māori
CurrencyCanadian Dollar (CAD)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
Elevation98 m280 m
Main airportQuebec Jean Lesage International Airport (YQB)13 km from centre34 non-stop destinationsRotorua Regional Airport (ROT)7 km from centre3 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureQuebec CityRotorua
City population574,48258,500
People per km²1,18422
Museums within 10 km161
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 Quebec City 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.