About BestRotorua
BestRotorua is an independent guide to the best of Rotorua — places to eat, things to do, and the local businesses worth knowing about. Every list on this site is put together by hand. Rankings are editorial and cannot be bought. Some pages carry clearly labelled sponsored placements, which sit outside the editorial Top 10 - see our Advertise page for how that works.
It is one of four city sites in the NZ City Guides network. The same rankings method, the same people, four cities:
- BestAuckland — the best of Auckland
- BestWellington — the best of Wellington
- BestQueenstown — the best of Queenstown
Who compiles the lists
The lists are compiled and edited by Amit Sharma, who is based in Auckland and works as a real-estate agent and marketer. He travels to Rotorua regularly and builds each list himself, drawing on visits, conversations with locals and operators, and public information such as business websites, menus and opening hours. There is no team of anonymous contributors and no automated ranking — one editor is accountable for every position on the site. His own site — amit.marketing — is where his property and marketing work lives. This is the only link to it on this site; the guides themselves stay independent of it.
How places are chosen
A place has to be open, trading in Rotorua or its surrounding suburbs, and genuinely useful to a visitor or local before it is considered. From there the order is decided on a handful of practical things: the consistency of the experience across many visits and reviews, how well it does the specific thing the category is about, value for money, accessibility, and how easy it is to actually book or turn up. A great restaurant that is almost never open ranks below a very good one you can walk into on a Tuesday. Popularity alone does not decide a position, and neither does whether a business advertises with us.
Every category page opens with a short introduction written specifically for that category in Rotorua, explaining what matters when choosing — for example, why geothermal mineral pools differ from ordinary spas, or why booking ahead matters for evening cultural performances.
How often lists are re-checked
Lists are reviewed on a rolling basis, with each category re-checked at least every few months and the busiest categories — food, activities and accommodation — checked more often. A review means confirming each business is still trading, that the address, hours and website are current, and that the ranking still reflects the place today. When a list has been re-checked, the page shows a visible “Last updated” month directly under its heading, so you can see how fresh it is. Closed or renamed venues are removed rather than left in place.
Report a closed or changed business
Something out of date, closed, or ranked wrongly? Tell us and it gets fixed — a correction is worth more to this site than any listing fee. Email amitnz@gmail.com or use the contact page. Include the business name, the page you saw it on, and what has changed — a new address, different hours, a closure, or a change of owner. Reports are usually checked and actioned within a few days. Business owners can also ask for a listing to be corrected or removed.
Businesses wanting to be considered can use the advertise page, which is also where sponsorship enquiries go. Sponsorship is always labelled and never changes a ranking.
