VacationSelector
Beira Lake with Seema Malaka and the Lotus Tower, Colombo
ColomboBeira Lake with Seema Malaka and the Lotus Tower
St. Petersburg, Florida

Photos: Colombo by Mohamed Ansaf, Pexels License.

Colombo or St. Petersburg, Florida?

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 Colombo for

  • prices
  • food and drink
  • wellness

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

Choose St. Petersburg, Florida for

  • families
  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on St. Petersburg, Florida’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. Colombo 55, St. Petersburg, Florida 85: St. Petersburg, Florida leads by 30 points.
Food & drink. Colombo 66, St. Petersburg, Florida 52: Colombo leads by 14 points.
Culture & sights. Colombo 45, St. Petersburg, Florida 52: St. Petersburg, Florida leads by 7 points.
Nightlife. Colombo 35, St. Petersburg, Florida 44: St. Petersburg, Florida leads by 9 points.
Nature & outdoors. Colombo 32, St. Petersburg, Florida 58: St. Petersburg, Florida leads by 26 points.
Day trips. Colombo 50, St. Petersburg, Florida 55: St. Petersburg, Florida leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Colombo 35, St. Petersburg, Florida 70: St. Petersburg, Florida leads by 35 points.
Getting around. Colombo 35, St. Petersburg, Florida 33: Colombo leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Colombo 45, St. Petersburg, Florida 38: Colombo leads by 7 points.
Affordability. Colombo 78, St. Petersburg, Florida 35: Colombo leads by 43 points.
Live music & performing arts. Colombo 30, St. Petersburg, Florida 42: St. Petersburg, Florida leads by 12 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Colombo 48, St. Petersburg, Florida 40: Colombo leads by 8 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Colombo and St. Petersburg, Florida.

Your match

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

Colombo
46match

Wins on prices and food and drink with your weighting.

St. Petersburg, Florida
Best match
50match

Wins on families and beaches with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Colombo in July

30 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
128 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
28 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

St. Petersburg, Florida in July

32 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
197 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
30 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
ColomboSt. Petersburg, Florida

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Colombo: 1991-2020 normals, Colombo (3 km from centre). St. Petersburg, Florida: 1998-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Saint Petersburg (1.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureColomboSt. Petersburg, Florida
Official languageTamil, Sinhala-
CurrencySri Lanka Rupee (LKR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsGM230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+5:30UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 119, ambulance 110, fire 110911
Elevation1 m134 m
Main airportBandaranaike International Colombo Airport (CMB)28 km from centre56 non-stop destinationsSt. Petersburg Clearwater International Airport (PIE)16 km from centre60 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-11 days

By the numbers

MeasureColomboSt. Petersburg, Florida
City population647,557258,308
People per km²17,361725
Museums within 10 km1013
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months8 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Colombo or St. Petersburg, Florida 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). 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. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.