VacationSelector
Clearwater Beach in evening light, with its hotels and pier, Clearwater
ClearwaterClearwater Beach in evening light, with its hotels and pier
Hawthorne Bridge and downtown, Portland
PortlandHawthorne Bridge and downtown

Photos: Clearwater by ajay_suresh, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Portland by Cacophony, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Clearwater or Portland?

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

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

Choose Portland for

  • getting around
  • food and drink
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Portland’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, Portland 20: Clearwater leads by 70 points.
Food & drink. Clearwater 38, Portland 68: Portland leads by 30 points.
Culture & sights. Clearwater 18, Portland 38: Portland leads by 20 points.
Nightlife. Clearwater 34, Portland 52: Portland leads by 18 points.
Nature & outdoors. Clearwater 55, Portland 84: Portland leads by 29 points.
Day trips. Clearwater and Portland are level on 58.
Good for families. Clearwater 78, Portland 55: Clearwater leads by 23 points.
Getting around. Clearwater 28, Portland 62: Portland leads by 34 points.
Shopping & style. Clearwater 27, Portland 52: Portland leads by 25 points.
Affordability. Clearwater 35, Portland 38: Portland leads by 3 points.
Live music & performing arts. Clearwater 36, Portland 55: Portland leads by 19 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Clearwater 40, Portland 42: Portland leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Clearwater and Portland.

Your match

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

Clearwater
45match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

Portland
Best match
52match

Wins on getting around 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

Portland in July

27 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
13 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
ClearwaterPortland

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). Portland: 1991-2020 normals, Portland International Airport (9.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureClearwaterPortland
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation9 m152 m
Main airportSt. Petersburg Clearwater International Airport (PIE)13 km from centre60 non-stop destinationsPortland International Airport (PDX)10 km from centre88 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureClearwaterPortland
City population117,292652,503
People per km²1,1541,736
Museums within 10 km417
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 Portland 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.