VacationSelector
The old Bath House in the Government Gardens, Rotorua
RotoruaThe old Bath House in the Government Gardens
The old Tampa Bay Hotel across the river, Tampa
TampaThe old Tampa Bay Hotel across the river

Photos: Rotorua by W. Bulach, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Tampa by Ken Lund, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Rotorua or Tampa?

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
  • nature and the outdoors
  • getting around

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

Choose Tampa for

  • nightlife
  • beaches
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Tampa’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, Tampa 70: Tampa leads by 37 points.
Food & drink. Rotorua 33, Tampa 57: Tampa leads by 24 points.
Culture & sights. Rotorua 38, Tampa 42: Tampa leads by 4 points.
Nightlife. Rotorua 14, Tampa 52: Tampa leads by 38 points.
Nature & outdoors. Rotorua 86, Tampa 55: Rotorua leads by 31 points.
Day trips. Rotorua 45, Tampa 54: Tampa leads by 9 points.
Good for families. Rotorua 68, Tampa 78: Tampa leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Rotorua 30, Tampa 22: Rotorua leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. Rotorua 22, Tampa 40: Tampa leads by 18 points.
Affordability. Rotorua 36, Tampa 40: Tampa leads by 4 points.
Live music & performing arts. Rotorua 30, Tampa 47: Tampa leads by 17 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Rotorua 86, Tampa 30: Rotorua leads by 56 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Rotorua and Tampa.

Your match

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

Rotorua
43match

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

Tampa
Best match
49match

Wins on nightlife 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

Tampa in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
197 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
30 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
RotoruaTampa

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. Tampa: 1991-2020 normals, Tampa International Airport (7.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureRotoruaTampa
Official languageEnglish, New Zealand Sign Language, Māori-
CurrencyNew Zealand Dollar (NZD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsI230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+12, UTC+13 in summerUTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number111911
Elevation280 m30 m
Main airportRotorua Regional Airport (ROT)7 km from centre3 non-stop destinationsTampa International Airport (TPA)8 km from centre101 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureRotoruaTampa
City population58,500384,959
People per km²22848
Museums within 10 km16
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone8 months

Where else could you go?

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