VacationSelector
The Auckland skyline and Sky Tower from the Waitematā Harbour, Auckland
AucklandThe Auckland skyline and Sky Tower from the Waitematā Harbour
Clearwater Beach in evening light, with its hotels and pier, Clearwater
ClearwaterClearwater Beach in evening light, with its hotels and pier

Photos: Auckland by Pseudopanax at English Wikipedia, Public domain; Clearwater by ajay_suresh, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Auckland 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 Auckland for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • culture and sights
  • food and drink

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

Choose Clearwater for

  • beaches
  • families
  • day trips

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. Auckland 68, Clearwater 90: Clearwater leads by 22 points.
Food & drink. Auckland 62, Clearwater 38: Auckland leads by 24 points.
Culture & sights. Auckland 44, Clearwater 18: Auckland leads by 26 points.
Nightlife. Auckland 42, Clearwater 34: Auckland leads by 8 points.
Nature & outdoors. Auckland 83, Clearwater 55: Auckland leads by 28 points.
Day trips. Auckland 55, Clearwater 58: Clearwater leads by 3 points.
Good for families. Auckland 70, Clearwater 78: Clearwater leads by 8 points.
Getting around. Auckland 42, Clearwater 28: Auckland leads by 14 points.
Shopping & style. Auckland 45, Clearwater 27: Auckland leads by 18 points.
Affordability. Auckland 32, Clearwater 35: Clearwater leads by 3 points.
Live music & performing arts. Auckland 45, Clearwater 36: Auckland leads by 9 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Auckland 45, Clearwater 40: Auckland leads by 5 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Auckland
Best match
53match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and culture and sights with your weighting.

Clearwater
45match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Auckland in July

14 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
135 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
14 °Csea
10 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
AucklandClearwater

Where the figures come from

Auckland's station stands 189 m below the city centre, so the centre is likely a little cooler than the figures say.

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. Auckland: 1961-1990 normals, Auckland Aerodrome Aws (17 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

MeasureAucklandClearwater
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
Elevation196 m9 m
Main airportAuckland International Airport (AKL)18 km from centre63 non-stop destinationsSt. Petersburg Clearwater International Airport (PIE)13 km from centre60 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureAucklandClearwater
City population1,470,100117,292
People per km²2,6301,154
Museums within 10 km154
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C1 month8 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Auckland 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). 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. 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.