VacationSelector
The old Bath House in the Government Gardens, Rotorua
RotoruaThe old Bath House in the Government Gardens
The cathedral above the old town, Santiago de Compostela
Santiago de CompostelaThe cathedral above the old town

Photos: Rotorua by W. Bulach, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Santiago de Compostela by Luis Miguel Bugallo Sánchez (Lmbuga), CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Rotorua or Santiago de Compostela?

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
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Santiago de Compostela for

  • getting around
  • food and drink
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Santiago de Compostela’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, Santiago de Compostela 32: Rotorua leads by 1 points.
Food & drink. Rotorua 33, Santiago de Compostela 68: Santiago de Compostela leads by 35 points.
Culture & sights. Rotorua 38, Santiago de Compostela 70: Santiago de Compostela leads by 32 points.
Nightlife. Rotorua 14, Santiago de Compostela 45: Santiago de Compostela leads by 31 points.
Nature & outdoors. Rotorua 86, Santiago de Compostela 62: Rotorua leads by 24 points.
Day trips. Rotorua 45, Santiago de Compostela 72: Santiago de Compostela leads by 27 points.
Good for families. Rotorua 68, Santiago de Compostela 42: Rotorua leads by 26 points.
Getting around. Rotorua 30, Santiago de Compostela 70: Santiago de Compostela leads by 40 points.
Shopping & style. Rotorua 22, Santiago de Compostela 35: Santiago de Compostela leads by 13 points.
Affordability. Rotorua 36, Santiago de Compostela 64: Santiago de Compostela leads by 28 points.
Live music & performing arts. Rotorua 30, Santiago de Compostela 40: Santiago de Compostela leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Rotorua 86, Santiago de Compostela 42: Rotorua leads by 44 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Rotorua and Santiago de Compostela.

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.

Santiago de Compostela
Best match
54match

Wins on getting around and food and drink 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

Santiago de Compostela in July

25 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
41 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
17 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°5°10°15°20°25°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
RotoruaSantiago de Compostela

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. Santiago de Compostela: 1991-2020 normals, Santiago / Labacolla (8.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureRotoruaSantiago de Compostela
Official languageEnglish, New Zealand Sign Language, MāoriSpanish
CurrencyNew Zealand Dollar (NZD)Euro (EUR)
SocketsI230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+12, UTC+13 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number111112
Elevation280 m260 m
Main airportRotorua Regional Airport (ROT)7 km from centre3 non-stop destinationsSantiago-Rosalía de Castro Airport (SCQ)10 km from centre29 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureRotoruaSantiago de Compostela
City population58,500100,965
People per km²22459
Museums within 10 km16
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
Swim season, months above 21 °CNoneNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Rotorua or Santiago de Compostela 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. 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.