VacationSelector
The old Bath House in the Government Gardens, Rotorua
RotoruaThe old Bath House in the Government Gardens
York Minster from the city walls, York
YorkYork Minster from the city walls

Photos: Rotorua by W. Bulach, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; York by PAUL FARMER, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Rotorua or York?

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
  • beaches

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

Choose York for

  • getting around
  • day trips
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on York’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, York 14: Rotorua leads by 19 points.
Food & drink. Rotorua 33, York 42: York leads by 9 points.
Culture & sights. Rotorua 38, York 70: York leads by 32 points.
Nightlife. Rotorua 14, York 36: York leads by 22 points.
Nature & outdoors. Rotorua 86, York 62: Rotorua leads by 24 points.
Day trips. Rotorua 45, York 80: York leads by 35 points.
Good for families. Rotorua 68, York 60: Rotorua leads by 8 points.
Getting around. Rotorua 30, York 72: York leads by 42 points.
Shopping & style. Rotorua 22, York 46: York leads by 24 points.
Affordability. Rotorua 36, York 38: York leads by 2 points.
Live music & performing arts. Rotorua 30, York 38: York leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Rotorua 86, York 34: Rotorua leads by 52 points.
0255075100

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

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.

York
Best match
49match

Wins on getting around and day trips 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

York in July

21 °Cdaytime high
12 °Cnight-time low
62 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
No seasea
17 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°5°10°15°20°25°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
RotoruaYork

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.

York has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

York's sunshine is measured 48 km from the centre, at Leeming.

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. York: 1991-2020 normals, Linton-On-Ouse (14.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureRotoruaYork
Official languageEnglish, New Zealand Sign Language, MāoriEnglish
CurrencyNew Zealand Dollar (NZD)Pound Sterling (GBP)
SocketsI230 V, 50 HzG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+12, UTC+13 in summerUTC, UTC+1 in summer
Emergency number111112 or 999
Elevation280 m25 m
Main airportRotorua Regional Airport (ROT)7 km from centre3 non-stop destinationsLeeds Bradford Airport (LBA)39 km from centre69 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days8 days

By the numbers

MeasureRotoruaYork
City population58,500208,400
People per km²22766
Museums within 10 km124
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
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 York 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.