VacationSelector
Clearwater Beach in evening light, with its hotels and pier, Clearwater
ClearwaterClearwater Beach in evening light, with its hotels and pier
Galway Cathedral from the River Corrib, Galway
GalwayGalway Cathedral from the River Corrib

Photos: Clearwater by ajay_suresh, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Galway by Dieglop, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Clearwater or Galway?

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
  • families
  • wellness

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

Choose Galway for

  • getting around
  • nature and the outdoors
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Galway’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, Galway 28: Clearwater leads by 62 points.
Food & drink. Clearwater 38, Galway 45: Galway leads by 7 points.
Culture & sights. Clearwater 18, Galway 33: Galway leads by 15 points.
Nightlife. Clearwater 34, Galway 50: Galway leads by 16 points.
Nature & outdoors. Clearwater 55, Galway 78: Galway leads by 23 points.
Day trips. Clearwater 58, Galway 56: Clearwater leads by 2 points.
Good for families. Clearwater 78, Galway 42: Clearwater leads by 36 points.
Getting around. Clearwater 28, Galway 58: Galway leads by 30 points.
Shopping & style. Clearwater 27, Galway 38: Galway leads by 11 points.
Affordability. Clearwater 35, Galway 28: Clearwater leads by 7 points.
Live music & performing arts. Clearwater 36, Galway 57: Galway leads by 21 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Clearwater 40, Galway 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 Galway.

Your match

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

Too close to call, level with your weighting

Clearwater
45match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

Galway
45match

Wins on getting around 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.

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

Galway in July

20 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
91 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
16 °Csea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
ClearwaterGalway

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.

Galway's temperatures are measured 64 km from the centre, at Shannon Airport.

Galway 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). Galway: 1991-2020 normals, Shannon Airport (64.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureClearwaterGalway
Official language-English, Irish
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC, UTC+1 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation9 m25 m
Main airportSt. Petersburg Clearwater International Airport (PIE)13 km from centre60 non-stop destinationsShannon Airport (SNN)64 km from centre39 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureClearwaterGalway
City population117,29283,456
People per km²1,1541,563
Museums within 10 km44
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C8 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Clearwater or Galway 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. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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.