VacationSelector
Clearwater Beach in evening light, with its hotels and pier, Clearwater
ClearwaterClearwater Beach in evening light, with its hotels and pier
The old railway depot in the snow, Steamboat Springs
Steamboat SpringsThe old railway depot in the snow

Photos: Clearwater by ajay_suresh, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Steamboat Springs by Jeffrey Beall, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Clearwater or Steamboat Springs?

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
  • day trips
  • prices

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

Choose Steamboat Springs for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Steamboat Springs’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, Steamboat Springs 7: Clearwater leads by 83 points.
Food & drink. Clearwater 38, Steamboat Springs 30: Clearwater leads by 8 points.
Culture & sights. Clearwater 18, Steamboat Springs 14: Clearwater leads by 4 points.
Nightlife. Clearwater 34, Steamboat Springs 20: Clearwater leads by 14 points.
Nature & outdoors. Clearwater 55, Steamboat Springs 88: Steamboat Springs leads by 33 points.
Day trips. Clearwater 58, Steamboat Springs 12: Clearwater leads by 46 points.
Good for families. Clearwater 78, Steamboat Springs 62: Clearwater leads by 16 points.
Getting around. Clearwater 28, Steamboat Springs 46: Steamboat Springs leads by 18 points.
Shopping & style. Clearwater 27, Steamboat Springs 22: Clearwater leads by 5 points.
Affordability. Clearwater 35, Steamboat Springs 17: Clearwater leads by 18 points.
Live music & performing arts. Clearwater 36, Steamboat Springs 28: Clearwater leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Clearwater 40, Steamboat Springs 70: Steamboat Springs leads by 30 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Clearwater and Steamboat Springs.

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 day trips with your weighting.

Steamboat Springs
35match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and wellness 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

Steamboat Springs in July

28 °Cdaytime high
10 °Cnight-time low
31 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
ClearwaterSteamboat Springs

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.

Steamboat Springs 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). Steamboat Springs: 2011-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Steamboat Springs / Steamboat Ii (5.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureClearwaterSteamboat Springs
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 m2,052 m
Main airportSt. Petersburg Clearwater International Airport (PIE)13 km from centre60 non-stop destinationsYampa Valley Airport (HDN)33 km from centre17 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureClearwaterSteamboat Springs
City population117,29213,224
People per km²1,154503
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 Steamboat Springs 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.