VacationSelector
Clearwater Beach in evening light, with its hotels and pier, Clearwater
ClearwaterClearwater Beach in evening light, with its hotels and pier
Surfers Paradise from Narrowneck Beach, Gold Coast
Gold CoastSurfers Paradise from Narrowneck Beach

Photos: Clearwater by ajay_suresh, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Gold Coast by Kgbo, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Clearwater 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 Clearwater for

  • day trips
  • live music and the arts
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Gold Coast for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • nightlife
  • getting around

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. Clearwater 90, Gold Coast 92: Gold Coast leads by 2 points.
Food & drink. Clearwater 38, Gold Coast 47: Gold Coast leads by 9 points.
Culture & sights. Clearwater 18, Gold Coast 15: Clearwater leads by 3 points.
Nightlife. Clearwater 34, Gold Coast 55: Gold Coast leads by 21 points.
Nature & outdoors. Clearwater 55, Gold Coast 82: Gold Coast leads by 27 points.
Day trips. Clearwater 58, Gold Coast 52: Clearwater leads by 6 points.
Good for families. Clearwater 78, Gold Coast 89: Gold Coast leads by 11 points.
Getting around. Clearwater 28, Gold Coast 45: Gold Coast leads by 17 points.
Shopping & style. Clearwater 27, Gold Coast 40: Gold Coast leads by 13 points.
Affordability. Clearwater and Gold Coast are level on 35.
Live music & performing arts. Clearwater 36, Gold Coast 30: Clearwater leads by 6 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Clearwater 40, Gold Coast 42: Gold Coast leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Clearwater and Gold Coast.

Your match

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

Clearwater
45match

Wins on day trips and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Gold Coast
Best match
52match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and nightlife 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

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°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
ClearwaterGold Coast

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.

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. Clearwater: 2006-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Saint Petersburg / High Point (12.7 km from centre). Gold Coast: 1991-2020 normals, Gold Coast Seaway (13 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureClearwaterGold Coast
Official language-English
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Australian Dollar (AUD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC+10
Emergency number911000
Elevation9 m12 m
Main airportSt. Petersburg Clearwater International Airport (PIE)13 km from centre60 non-stop destinationsGold Coast Airport (OOL)20 km from centre19 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureClearwaterGold Coast
City population117,292607,665
People per km²1,154433
Museums within 10 km42
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
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 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.