VacationSelector
The Explanada de España, Alicante
AlicanteThe Explanada de España
Clearwater Beach in evening light, with its hotels and pier, Clearwater
ClearwaterClearwater Beach in evening light, with its hotels and pier

Photos: Alicante by Emilio Sánchez Hernández, Pexels License; Clearwater by ajay_suresh, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Alicante or Clearwater?

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 Alicante for

  • getting around
  • food and drink
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Clearwater for

  • families
  • beaches

What lies behind each score is written up on Clearwater’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. Alicante 82, Clearwater 90: Clearwater leads by 8 points.
Food & drink. Alicante 67, Clearwater 38: Alicante leads by 29 points.
Culture & sights. Alicante 46, Clearwater 18: Alicante leads by 28 points.
Nightlife. Alicante 60, Clearwater 34: Alicante leads by 26 points.
Nature & outdoors. Alicante 63, Clearwater 55: Alicante leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Alicante 72, Clearwater 58: Alicante leads by 14 points.
Good for families. Alicante 68, Clearwater 78: Clearwater leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Alicante 66, Clearwater 28: Alicante leads by 38 points.
Shopping & style. Alicante 44, Clearwater 27: Alicante leads by 17 points.
Affordability. Alicante 60, Clearwater 35: Alicante leads by 25 points.
Live music & performing arts. Alicante 37, Clearwater 36: Alicante leads by 1 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Alicante and Clearwater are level on 40.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Alicante and Clearwater.

Your match

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

Alicante
Best match
59match

Wins on getting around and food and drink with your weighting.

Clearwater
45match

Wins on families and beaches with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Alicante in July

30 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
3 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Clearwater in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
188 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
30 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
AlicanteClearwater

Where the figures come from

Clearwater 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.

Clearwater's sunshine is measured 26 km from the centre, at Tampa International Airport.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Alicante: 1991-2020 normals, Alicante (2.8 km from centre). Clearwater: 2006-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Saint Petersburg / High Point (12.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAlicanteClearwater
Official languageSpanish-
CurrencyEuro (EUR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation3 m9 m
Main airportAlicante-Elche Miguel Hernández Airport (ALC)10 km from centre126 non-stop destinationsSt. Petersburg Clearwater International Airport (PIE)13 km from centre60 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureAlicanteClearwater
City population366,221117,292
People per km²1,8191,154
Museums within 10 km84
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °C5 months8 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Alicante or Clearwater somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. 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). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.