VacationSelector
Cloud Gate in Millennium Park, Chicago
ChicagoCloud Gate in Millennium Park
Surfers Paradise from Narrowneck Beach, Gold Coast
Gold CoastSurfers Paradise from Narrowneck Beach

Photos: Chicago by Jesus Toledo, Pexels License; Gold Coast by Kgbo, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Chicago or Gold Coast?

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 Chicago for

  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts
  • food and drink

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

Choose Gold Coast for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Gold Coast’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. Chicago 50, Gold Coast 92: Gold Coast leads by 42 points.
Food & drink. Chicago 80, Gold Coast 47: Chicago leads by 33 points.
Culture & sights. Chicago 78, Gold Coast 15: Chicago leads by 63 points.
Nightlife. Chicago 77, Gold Coast 55: Chicago leads by 22 points.
Nature & outdoors. Chicago 48, Gold Coast 82: Gold Coast leads by 34 points.
Day trips. Chicago 42, Gold Coast 52: Gold Coast leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Chicago 78, Gold Coast 89: Gold Coast leads by 11 points.
Getting around. Chicago 72, Gold Coast 45: Chicago leads by 27 points.
Shopping & style. Chicago 70, Gold Coast 40: Chicago leads by 30 points.
Affordability. Chicago 33, Gold Coast 35: Gold Coast leads by 2 points.
Live music & performing arts. Chicago 82, Gold Coast 30: Chicago leads by 52 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Chicago 33, Gold Coast 42: Gold Coast leads by 9 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Chicago and Gold Coast.

Your match

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

Chicago
Best match
62match

Wins on culture and sights and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Gold Coast
52match

Wins on beaches and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Chicago in July

29 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
102 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
21 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Gold Coast in July

22 °Cdaytime high
12 °Cnight-time low
59 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
21 °Csea
11 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
ChicagoGold Coast

Where the figures come from

Gold Coast's sunshine is measured 75 km from the centre, at Brisbane Airport.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Chicago: 1991-2020 normals, Chicago Midway Airport (14.5 km from centre). Gold Coast: 1991-2020 normals, Gold Coast Seaway (13 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureChicagoGold Coast
Official language-English
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Australian Dollar (AUD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-6, UTC-5 in summerUTC+10
Emergency number911000
Elevation179 m12 m
Main airportChicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD)25 km from centre274 non-stop destinationsGold Coast Airport (OOL)20 km from centre19 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureChicagoGold Coast
City population2,746,388607,665
People per km²4,529433
Museums within 10 km442
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
Swim season, months above 21 °C1 month12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Chicago or Gold Coast 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.