VacationSelector
The old Bath House in the Government Gardens, Rotorua
RotoruaThe old Bath House in the Government Gardens
The City of Arts and Sciences, Valencia
ValenciaThe City of Arts and Sciences

Photos: Rotorua by W. Bulach, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Valencia by Francesco Ungaro, Pexels License.

Rotorua or Valencia?

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

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

Choose Valencia for

  • nightlife
  • getting around
  • beaches

What lies behind each score is written up on Valencia’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, Valencia 78: Valencia leads by 45 points.
Food & drink. Rotorua 33, Valencia 74: Valencia leads by 41 points.
Culture & sights. Rotorua 38, Valencia 68: Valencia leads by 30 points.
Nightlife. Rotorua 14, Valencia 66: Valencia leads by 52 points.
Nature & outdoors. Rotorua 86, Valencia 60: Rotorua leads by 26 points.
Day trips. Rotorua 45, Valencia 70: Valencia leads by 25 points.
Good for families. Rotorua 68, Valencia 75: Valencia leads by 7 points.
Getting around. Rotorua 30, Valencia 76: Valencia leads by 46 points.
Shopping & style. Rotorua 22, Valencia 57: Valencia leads by 35 points.
Affordability. Rotorua 36, Valencia 57: Valencia leads by 21 points.
Live music & performing arts. Rotorua 30, Valencia 55: Valencia leads by 25 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Rotorua 86, Valencia 42: Rotorua leads by 44 points.
0255075100

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

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.

Valencia
Best match
65match

Wins on nightlife and getting around 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

Valencia in July

30 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
7 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
RotoruaValencia

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. Valencia: 1991-2020 normals, Valencia (1.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureRotoruaValencia
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 m15 m
Main airportRotorua Regional Airport (ROT)7 km from centre3 non-stop destinationsValencia Airport (VLC)9 km from centre109 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureRotoruaValencia
City population58,500840,792
People per km²226,242
Museums within 10 km145
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
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 Valencia 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.