VacationSelector
The old Bath House in the Government Gardens, Rotorua
RotoruaThe old Bath House in the Government Gardens
Palms at CityPlace on Rosemary Avenue, West Palm Beach
West Palm BeachPalms at CityPlace on Rosemary Avenue

Photos: Rotorua by W. Bulach, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; West Palm Beach by Michael Rivera, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Rotorua or West Palm Beach?

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
  • prices

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

Choose West Palm Beach for

  • beaches
  • shopping
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on West Palm Beach’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, West Palm Beach 80: West Palm Beach leads by 47 points.
Food & drink. Rotorua 33, West Palm Beach 52: West Palm Beach leads by 19 points.
Culture & sights. Rotorua 38, West Palm Beach 42: West Palm Beach leads by 4 points.
Nightlife. Rotorua 14, West Palm Beach 36: West Palm Beach leads by 22 points.
Nature & outdoors. Rotorua 86, West Palm Beach 58: Rotorua leads by 28 points.
Day trips. Rotorua 45, West Palm Beach 55: West Palm Beach leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Rotorua 68, West Palm Beach 66: Rotorua leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Rotorua 30, West Palm Beach 38: West Palm Beach leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. Rotorua 22, West Palm Beach 64: West Palm Beach leads by 42 points.
Affordability. Rotorua 36, West Palm Beach 23: Rotorua leads by 13 points.
Live music & performing arts. Rotorua 30, West Palm Beach 47: West Palm Beach leads by 17 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Rotorua 86, West Palm Beach 44: Rotorua leads by 42 points.
0255075100

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

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.

West Palm Beach
Best match
50match

Wins on beaches and shopping 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
15 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

West Palm Beach in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
145 mmrain in the month
29 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
RotoruaWest Palm Beach

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. West Palm Beach: 1991-2020 normals, Palm Beach International (5.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureRotoruaWest Palm Beach
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 m6 m
Main airportRotorua Regional Airport (ROT)7 km from centre3 non-stop destinationsPresident Donald J. Trump International Airport (DJT)6 km from centre42 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureRotoruaWest Palm Beach
City population58,500117,415
People per km²22786
Museums within 10 km14
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 West Palm Beach 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.