VacationSelector
Clearwater Beach in evening light, with its hotels and pier, Clearwater
ClearwaterClearwater Beach in evening light, with its hotels and pier
Skiers at the foot of the slopes in the village, Copper Mountain
Copper MountainSkiers at the foot of the slopes in the village

Photos: Clearwater by ajay_suresh, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Copper Mountain by SparkFunElectronics, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Clearwater or Copper Mountain?

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

  • beaches
  • live music and the arts
  • nightlife

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

Choose Copper Mountain for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Copper Mountain’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, Copper Mountain 3: Clearwater leads by 87 points.
Food & drink. Clearwater 38, Copper Mountain 20: Clearwater leads by 18 points.
Culture & sights. Clearwater 18, Copper Mountain 4: Clearwater leads by 14 points.
Nightlife. Clearwater 34, Copper Mountain 12: Clearwater leads by 22 points.
Nature & outdoors. Clearwater 55, Copper Mountain 90: Copper Mountain leads by 35 points.
Day trips. Clearwater 58, Copper Mountain 55: Clearwater leads by 3 points.
Good for families. Clearwater 78, Copper Mountain 62: Clearwater leads by 16 points.
Getting around. Clearwater 28, Copper Mountain 48: Copper Mountain leads by 20 points.
Shopping & style. Clearwater 27, Copper Mountain 8: Clearwater leads by 19 points.
Affordability. Clearwater 35, Copper Mountain 18: Clearwater leads by 17 points.
Live music & performing arts. Clearwater 36, Copper Mountain 8: Clearwater leads by 28 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Clearwater 40, Copper Mountain 28: Clearwater leads by 12 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Clearwater and Copper Mountain.

Your match

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

Clearwater
Best match
45match

Wins on beaches and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Copper Mountain
30match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and getting around 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

Copper Mountain in July

21 °Cdaytime high
5 °Cnight-time low
41 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
ClearwaterCopper Mountain

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.

Copper Mountain's temperatures are measured 35 km from the centre, at Leadville / Stringtown.

Copper Mountain 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.

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). Copper Mountain: 2006-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Leadville / Stringtown (35.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureClearwaterCopper Mountain
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC-7, UTC-6 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation9 m2,955 m
Main airportSt. Petersburg Clearwater International Airport (PIE)13 km from centre60 non-stop destinationsDenver International Airport (DEN)132 km from centre231 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureClearwaterCopper Mountain
City population117,292650
People per km²1,1548
Museums within 10 km40
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C8 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Clearwater or Copper Mountain 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. Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national sources. 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.