VacationSelector
Clearwater Beach in evening light, with its hotels and pier, Clearwater
ClearwaterClearwater Beach in evening light, with its hotels and pier
Portofino and its bay from the hillside, Portofino
PortofinoPortofino and its bay from the hillside

Photos: Clearwater by ajay_suresh, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Portofino by Michal Osmenda, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Clearwater or Portofino?

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
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Portofino for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • getting around
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Portofino’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, Portofino 60: Clearwater leads by 30 points.
Food & drink. Clearwater 38, Portofino 36: Clearwater leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Clearwater 18, Portofino 22: Portofino leads by 4 points.
Nightlife. Clearwater 34, Portofino 14: Clearwater leads by 20 points.
Nature & outdoors. Clearwater 55, Portofino 77: Portofino leads by 22 points.
Day trips. Clearwater 58, Portofino 76: Portofino leads by 18 points.
Good for families. Clearwater 78, Portofino 33: Clearwater leads by 45 points.
Getting around. Clearwater 28, Portofino 50: Portofino leads by 22 points.
Shopping & style. Clearwater 27, Portofino 29: Portofino leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Clearwater 35, Portofino 9: Clearwater leads by 26 points.
Live music & performing arts. Clearwater 36, Portofino 7: Clearwater leads by 29 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Clearwater 40, Portofino 42: Portofino leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Clearwater and Portofino.

Your match

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

Clearwater
Best match
45match

Wins on families and beaches with your weighting.

Portofino
38match

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

Portofino in July

27 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
32 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
24 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
ClearwaterPortofino

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.

Portofino's temperatures are measured 31 km from the centre, at Genova / Sestri.

Portofino 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). Portofino: 1991-2020 normals, Genova / Sestri (31 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureClearwaterPortofino
Official language-Italian
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation9 m20 m
Main airportSt. Petersburg Clearwater International Airport (PIE)13 km from centre60 non-stop destinationsGenoa Cristoforo Colombo Airport (GOA)32 km from centre25 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureClearwaterPortofino
City population117,292355
People per km²1,154142
Museums within 10 km414
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
Swim season, months above 21 °C8 months4 months

Where else could you go?

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