Photos: Rotorua by W. Bulach, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; San Miguel de Allende by Russ Bowling, CC BY 2.0, cropped.
Rotorua or San Miguel de Allende?
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 Rotorua for
- nature and the outdoors
- families
- beaches
What lies behind each score is written up on Rotorua’s own page.
Choose San Miguel de Allende for
- shopping
- day trips
- food and drink
What lies behind each score is written up on San Miguel de Allende’s own page.
Scoreboard
Twelve categories on one fixed scale from 0 to 100. The shaded stretch is the gap between the two.
What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Rotorua and San Miguel de Allende.
Your match
Pick a travel style or drag the sliders, and both match scores follow your weighting.
Wins on nature and the outdoors and families with your weighting.
Wins on shopping and day trips with your weighting.
What matters to you?
When should you go?
Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.
Rotorua in July
San Miguel de Allende in July
Daytime high, °C
Rainfall in the month, mm
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.
San Miguel de Allende's temperatures are measured 54 km from the centre, at Guanajuato, Gto..
San Miguel de Allende 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.
Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Rotorua: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km. San Miguel de Allende: 1991-2020 normals, Guanajuato, Gto. (53.7 km from centre).
Before you go
| Measure | Rotorua | San Miguel de Allende |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | English, New Zealand Sign Language, Māori | Spanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya |
| Currency | New Zealand Dollar (NZD) | Mexican Peso (MXN) |
| Sockets | I230 V, 50 Hz | AB127 V, 60 Hz |
| Driving side | Left | Right |
| Time zone | UTC+12, UTC+13 in summer | UTC-6 |
| Emergency number | 111 | 911 |
| Elevation | 280 m | 1,900 m |
| Main airport | Rotorua Regional Airport (ROT)7 km from centre3 non-stop destinations | Guanajuato International Airport (BJX)77 km from centre22 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 12 days | 9 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Rotorua | San Miguel de Allende |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 58,500 | 69,811 |
| People per km² | 22 | - |
| Museums within 10 km | 1 | 2 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 0 | 2 |
| 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 Rotorua or San Miguel de Allende somewhere new.