VacationSelector
The old Bath House in the Government Gardens, Rotorua
RotoruaThe old Bath House in the Government Gardens
The Christuskirche among palms, Windhoek
WindhoekThe Christuskirche among palms

Photos: Rotorua by W. Bulach, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Windhoek by Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Rotorua or Windhoek?

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 Windhoek for

  • prices
  • nightlife
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Windhoek’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, Windhoek 4: Rotorua leads by 29 points.
Food & drink. Rotorua 33, Windhoek 36: Windhoek leads by 3 points.
Culture & sights. Rotorua 38, Windhoek 30: Rotorua leads by 8 points.
Nightlife. Rotorua 14, Windhoek 25: Windhoek leads by 11 points.
Nature & outdoors. Rotorua 86, Windhoek 52: Rotorua leads by 34 points.
Day trips. Rotorua 45, Windhoek 14: Rotorua leads by 31 points.
Good for families. Rotorua 68, Windhoek 30: Rotorua leads by 38 points.
Getting around. Rotorua 30, Windhoek 22: Rotorua leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. Rotorua 22, Windhoek 30: Windhoek leads by 8 points.
Affordability. Rotorua 36, Windhoek 62: Windhoek leads by 26 points.
Live music & performing arts. Rotorua 30, Windhoek 18: Rotorua leads by 12 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Rotorua 86, Windhoek 30: Rotorua leads by 56 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Rotorua
Best match
43match

Wins on wellness and families with your weighting.

Windhoek
29match

Wins on prices and nightlife 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

Windhoek in July

22 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
No seasea
11 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
RotoruaWindhoek

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. Windhoek: 1991-2020 normals, Windhoek (1.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureRotoruaWindhoek
Official languageEnglish, New Zealand Sign Language, MāoriEnglish
CurrencyNew Zealand Dollar (NZD)Namibia Dollar (NAD)
SocketsI230 V, 50 HzM220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+12, UTC+13 in summerUTC+2
Emergency number111112
Elevation280 m1,650 m
Main airportRotorua Regional Airport (ROT)7 km from centre3 non-stop destinationsHosea Kutako International Airport (WDH)41 km from centre16 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureRotoruaWindhoek
City population58,500486,169
People per km²2295
Museums within 10 km15
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone-

Where else could you go?

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