VacationSelector
The church of San Francisco under a blue sky, Quito
QuitoThe church of San Francisco under a blue sky
Erasmus Bridge and the skyline, Rotterdam
RotterdamErasmus Bridge and the skyline

Photos: Quito by Bernard Gagnon, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Rotterdam by Bas Geerlings, Pexels License.

Quito or Rotterdam?

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 Quito for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • prices
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Rotterdam for

  • families
  • getting around
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Rotterdam’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. Quito 5, Rotterdam 27: Rotterdam leads by 22 points.
Food & drink. Quito 54, Rotterdam 52: Quito leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Quito 77, Rotterdam 58: Quito leads by 19 points.
Nightlife. Quito 40, Rotterdam 52: Rotterdam leads by 12 points.
Nature & outdoors. Quito 86, Rotterdam 44: Quito leads by 42 points.
Day trips. Quito 55, Rotterdam 85: Rotterdam leads by 30 points.
Good for families. Quito 32, Rotterdam 66: Rotterdam leads by 34 points.
Getting around. Quito 45, Rotterdam 78: Rotterdam leads by 33 points.
Shopping & style. Quito 40, Rotterdam 55: Rotterdam leads by 15 points.
Affordability. Quito 78, Rotterdam 38: Quito leads by 40 points.
Live music & performing arts. Quito 38, Rotterdam 58: Rotterdam leads by 20 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Quito 44, Rotterdam 42: Quito leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Quito and Rotterdam.

Your match

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

Quito
50match

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

Rotterdam
Best match
55match

Wins on families and getting around with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Quito in July

18 °Cdaytime high
5 °Cnight-time low
32 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
No seasea
12 hdaylight a day

Rotterdam in July

22 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
91 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°5°10°15°20°25°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
QuitoRotterdam

Where the figures come from

Quito's station stands 208 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer than the figures say.

Rotterdam has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

Rotterdam's sunshine is measured 52 km from the centre, at De Bilt.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Quito: 1961-1990 normals, Izobamba-Santa Catalina (16.8 km from centre). Rotterdam: 1993-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Rotterdam Airport Zestienhoven (3.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureQuitoRotterdam
Official languageSpanish, Shuar, Northern QuichuaDutch
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation2,850 m10 m
Main airportMariscal Sucre International Airport (UIO)20 km from centre22 non-stop destinationsRotterdam The Hague Airport (RTM)5 km from centre53 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureQuitoRotterdam
City population1,763,275664,311
People per km²4,7352,080
Museums within 10 km1640
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km25
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 Quito or Rotterdam 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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.