VacationSelector
The old Bath House in the Government Gardens, Rotorua
RotoruaThe old Bath House in the Government Gardens
The cathedral of Santa Marta, Santa Marta
Santa MartaThe cathedral of Santa Marta

Photos: Rotorua by W. Bulach, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Santa Marta by Oliver H, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Rotorua or Santa Marta?

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

  • wellness
  • families
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Santa Marta for

  • prices
  • beaches
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Santa Marta’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. Rotorua 33, Santa Marta 70: Santa Marta leads by 37 points.
Food & drink. Rotorua 33, Santa Marta 44: Santa Marta leads by 11 points.
Culture & sights. Rotorua 38, Santa Marta 34: Rotorua leads by 4 points.
Nightlife. Rotorua 14, Santa Marta 50: Santa Marta leads by 36 points.
Nature & outdoors. Rotorua 86, Santa Marta 84: Rotorua leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Rotorua 45, Santa Marta 38: Rotorua leads by 7 points.
Good for families. Rotorua 68, Santa Marta 40: Rotorua leads by 28 points.
Getting around. Rotorua 30, Santa Marta 38: Santa Marta leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. Rotorua 22, Santa Marta 27: Santa Marta leads by 5 points.
Affordability. Rotorua 36, Santa Marta 80: Santa Marta leads by 44 points.
Live music & performing arts. Rotorua 30, Santa Marta 17: Rotorua leads by 13 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Rotorua 86, Santa Marta 30: Rotorua leads by 56 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Rotorua
43match

Wins on wellness and families with your weighting.

Santa Marta
Best match
46match

Wins on prices 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.

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

Santa Marta in July

32 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
59 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
28 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
RotoruaSanta Marta

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. Rotorua: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km. Santa Marta: 1991-2020 normals, Santa Marta / Simon Bolivar (11.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureRotoruaSanta Marta
Official languageEnglish, New Zealand Sign Language, MāoriSpanish
CurrencyNew Zealand Dollar (NZD)Colombian Peso (COP)
SocketsI230 V, 50 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+12, UTC+13 in summerUTC-5
Emergency number111123
Elevation280 m8 m
Main airportRotorua Regional Airport (ROT)7 km from centre3 non-stop destinationsSimón Bolívar International Airport (SMR)13 km from centre6 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days19 days

By the numbers

MeasureRotoruaSanta Marta
City population58,500505,915
People per km²221,723
Museums within 10 km13
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Rotorua or Santa Marta somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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. Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. 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.