VacationSelector
The Calgary Tower above Olympic Plaza, Calgary
CalgaryThe Calgary Tower above Olympic Plaza
Clearwater Beach in evening light, with its hotels and pier, Clearwater
ClearwaterClearwater Beach in evening light, with its hotels and pier

Photos: Calgary by abdallahh, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Clearwater by ajay_suresh, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Calgary 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 Calgary for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • culture and sights
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Calgary’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. Calgary 8, Clearwater 90: Clearwater leads by 82 points.
Food & drink. Calgary 45, Clearwater 38: Calgary leads by 7 points.
Culture & sights. Calgary 35, Clearwater 18: Calgary leads by 17 points.
Nightlife. Calgary 40, Clearwater 34: Calgary leads by 6 points.
Nature & outdoors. Calgary 88, Clearwater 55: Calgary leads by 33 points.
Day trips. Calgary 55, Clearwater 58: Clearwater leads by 3 points.
Good for families. Calgary 68, Clearwater 78: Clearwater leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Calgary 42, Clearwater 28: Calgary leads by 14 points.
Shopping & style. Calgary 42, Clearwater 27: Calgary leads by 15 points.
Affordability. Calgary 42, Clearwater 35: Calgary leads by 7 points.
Live music & performing arts. Calgary 46, Clearwater 36: Calgary leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Calgary 42, Clearwater 40: Calgary leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Calgary and Clearwater.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Calgary
46match

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.

Calgary in July

25 °Cdaytime high
11 °Cnight-time low
44 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
16 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

-10°0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
CalgaryClearwater

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. Calgary: 1991-2020 normals, Calgary Int'l CS (8.2 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

MeasureCalgaryClearwater
Official languageFrench, English-
CurrencyCanadian Dollar (CAD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-7, UTC-6 in summerUTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation1,045 m9 m
Main airportCalgary International Airport (YYC)9 km from centre102 non-stop destinationsSt. Petersburg Clearwater International Airport (PIE)13 km from centre60 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureCalgaryClearwater
City population1,306,784117,292
People per km²1,5831,154
Museums within 10 km134
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C-8 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Calgary 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. 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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.