VacationSelector
The old Bath House in the Government Gardens, Rotorua
RotoruaThe old Bath House in the Government Gardens
The White Tower from the promenade, Thessaloniki
ThessalonikiThe White Tower from the promenade

Photos: Rotorua by W. Bulach, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Thessaloniki by Destinygreece, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Rotorua or Thessaloniki?

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
  • families

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

Choose Thessaloniki for

  • nightlife
  • food and drink
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Thessaloniki’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, Thessaloniki 55: Thessaloniki leads by 22 points.
Food & drink. Rotorua 33, Thessaloniki 77: Thessaloniki leads by 44 points.
Culture & sights. Rotorua 38, Thessaloniki 73: Thessaloniki leads by 35 points.
Nightlife. Rotorua 14, Thessaloniki 76: Thessaloniki leads by 62 points.
Nature & outdoors. Rotorua 86, Thessaloniki 66: Rotorua leads by 20 points.
Day trips. Rotorua 45, Thessaloniki 74: Thessaloniki leads by 29 points.
Good for families. Rotorua 68, Thessaloniki 50: Rotorua leads by 18 points.
Getting around. Rotorua 30, Thessaloniki 60: Thessaloniki leads by 30 points.
Shopping & style. Rotorua 22, Thessaloniki 50: Thessaloniki leads by 28 points.
Affordability. Rotorua 36, Thessaloniki 66: Thessaloniki leads by 30 points.
Live music & performing arts. Rotorua 30, Thessaloniki 52: Thessaloniki leads by 22 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Rotorua 86, Thessaloniki 33: Rotorua leads by 53 points.
0255075100

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

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.

Thessaloniki
Best match
61match

Wins on nightlife 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

Thessaloniki in July

32 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
23 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
26 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
RotoruaThessaloniki

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. Thessaloniki: 1991-2020 normals, Thessaloniki Airport (14 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureRotoruaThessaloniki
Official languageEnglish, New Zealand Sign Language, MāoriGreek
CurrencyNew Zealand Dollar (NZD)Euro (EUR)
SocketsI230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+12, UTC+13 in summerUTC+2, UTC+3 in summer
Emergency number111112
Elevation280 m6 m
Main airportRotorua Regional Airport (ROT)7 km from centre3 non-stop destinationsThessaloniki Macedonia International Airport (SKG)14 km from centre90 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days15 days

By the numbers

MeasureRotoruaThessaloniki
City population58,500309,617
People per km²2216,042
Museums within 10 km132
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone5 months

Where else could you go?

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