VacationSelector
The Auckland skyline and Sky Tower from the Waitematā Harbour, Auckland
AucklandThe Auckland skyline and Sky Tower from the Waitematā Harbour
The pink Don CeSar hotel seen from the beach, St. Pete Beach
St. Pete BeachThe pink Don CeSar hotel seen from the beach

Photos: Auckland by Pseudopanax at English Wikipedia, Public domain; St. Pete Beach by Jeffrey Eisen, Pexels License.

Auckland or St. Pete Beach?

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

  • culture and sights
  • nature and the outdoors
  • shopping

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

Choose St. Pete Beach for

  • beaches
  • day trips
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on St. Pete Beach’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, St. Pete Beach 87: St. Pete Beach leads by 19 points.
Food & drink. Auckland 62, St. Pete Beach 40: Auckland leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. Auckland 44, St. Pete Beach 18: Auckland leads by 26 points.
Nightlife. Auckland 42, St. Pete Beach 28: Auckland leads by 14 points.
Nature & outdoors. Auckland 83, St. Pete Beach 57: Auckland leads by 26 points.
Day trips. Auckland 55, St. Pete Beach 58: St. Pete Beach leads by 3 points.
Good for families. Auckland 70, St. Pete Beach 72: St. Pete Beach leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Auckland 42, St. Pete Beach 30: Auckland leads by 12 points.
Shopping & style. Auckland 45, St. Pete Beach 20: Auckland leads by 25 points.
Affordability. Auckland and St. Pete Beach are level on 32.
Live music & performing arts. Auckland 45, St. Pete Beach 20: Auckland leads by 25 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Auckland 45, St. Pete Beach 42: Auckland leads by 3 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Auckland and St. Pete Beach.

Your match

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

Auckland
Best match
53match

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

St. Pete Beach
42match

Wins on beaches 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.

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

St. Pete Beach in July

32 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
185 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
AucklandSt. Pete Beach

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.

St. Pete Beach 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.

St. Pete Beach's sunshine is measured 34 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). St. Pete Beach: 1998-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Saint Petersburg (12.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAucklandSt. Pete Beach
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 m2 m
Main airportAuckland International Airport (AKL)18 km from centre63 non-stop destinationsSt. Petersburg Clearwater International Airport (PIE)21 km from centre60 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureAucklandSt. Pete Beach
City population1,470,1008,879
People per km²2,630173
Museums within 10 km152
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 St. Pete Beach 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.