VacationSelector
Clearwater Beach in evening light, with its hotels and pier, Clearwater
ClearwaterClearwater Beach in evening light, with its hotels and pier
Beira Lake with Seema Malaka and the Lotus Tower, Colombo
ColomboBeira Lake with Seema Malaka and the Lotus Tower

Photos: Clearwater by ajay_suresh, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Colombo by Mohamed Ansaf, Pexels License.

Clearwater or Colombo?

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 Clearwater for

  • families
  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Colombo for

  • prices
  • food and drink
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Colombo’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. Clearwater 90, Colombo 55: Clearwater leads by 35 points.
Food & drink. Clearwater 38, Colombo 66: Colombo leads by 28 points.
Culture & sights. Clearwater 18, Colombo 45: Colombo leads by 27 points.
Nightlife. Clearwater 34, Colombo 35: Colombo leads by 1 points.
Nature & outdoors. Clearwater 55, Colombo 32: Clearwater leads by 23 points.
Day trips. Clearwater 58, Colombo 50: Clearwater leads by 8 points.
Good for families. Clearwater 78, Colombo 35: Clearwater leads by 43 points.
Getting around. Clearwater 28, Colombo 35: Colombo leads by 7 points.
Shopping & style. Clearwater 27, Colombo 45: Colombo leads by 18 points.
Affordability. Clearwater 35, Colombo 78: Colombo leads by 43 points.
Live music & performing arts. Clearwater 36, Colombo 30: Clearwater leads by 6 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Clearwater 40, Colombo 48: Colombo leads by 8 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Clearwater
45match

Wins on families and beaches with your weighting.

Colombo
46match

Wins on prices and food and drink with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

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

Colombo in July

30 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
128 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
28 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
ClearwaterColombo

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. Clearwater: 2006-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Saint Petersburg / High Point (12.7 km from centre). Colombo: 1991-2020 normals, Colombo (3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureClearwaterColombo
Official language-Tamil, Sinhala
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Sri Lanka Rupee (LKR)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzGM230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC+5:30
Emergency number911Police 119, ambulance 110, fire 110
Elevation9 m1 m
Main airportSt. Petersburg Clearwater International Airport (PIE)13 km from centre60 non-stop destinationsBandaranaike International Colombo Airport (CMB)28 km from centre56 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days-

By the numbers

MeasureClearwaterColombo
City population117,292647,557
People per km²1,15417,361
Museums within 10 km410
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C8 months12 months

Where else could you go?

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