VacationSelector
The 1933 courthouse in downtown Fort Myers, now an arts centre, Fort Myers
Fort MyersThe 1933 courthouse in downtown Fort Myers, now an arts centre
Surfers Paradise from Narrowneck Beach, Gold Coast
Gold CoastSurfers Paradise from Narrowneck Beach

Photos: Fort Myers by Ebyabe, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Gold Coast by Kgbo, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Fort Myers 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 Fort Myers for

  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts
  • prices

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

Choose Gold Coast for

  • getting around
  • families
  • nightlife

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. Fort Myers 77, Gold Coast 92: Gold Coast leads by 15 points.
Food & drink. Fort Myers 40, Gold Coast 47: Gold Coast leads by 7 points.
Culture & sights. Fort Myers 32, Gold Coast 15: Fort Myers leads by 17 points.
Nightlife. Fort Myers 32, Gold Coast 55: Gold Coast leads by 23 points.
Nature & outdoors. Fort Myers 63, Gold Coast 82: Gold Coast leads by 19 points.
Day trips. Fort Myers 50, Gold Coast 52: Gold Coast leads by 2 points.
Good for families. Fort Myers 62, Gold Coast 89: Gold Coast leads by 27 points.
Getting around. Fort Myers 15, Gold Coast 45: Gold Coast leads by 30 points.
Shopping & style. Fort Myers 38, Gold Coast 40: Gold Coast leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Fort Myers 38, Gold Coast 35: Fort Myers leads by 3 points.
Live music & performing arts. Fort Myers 36, Gold Coast 30: Fort Myers leads by 6 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Fort Myers 35, Gold Coast 42: Gold Coast leads by 7 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Fort Myers and Gold Coast.

Your match

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

Fort Myers
43match

Wins on culture and sights and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Gold Coast
Best match
52match

Wins on getting around and families with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Fort Myers in July

33 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
220 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine 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
Fort MyersGold Coast

Where the figures come from

Fort Myers 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.

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. Fort Myers: 1991-2020 normals, Fort Myers / Page Park (4.5 km from centre). Gold Coast: 1991-2020 normals, Gold Coast Seaway (13 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureFort MyersGold 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
Elevation3 m12 m
Main airportSouthwest Florida International Airport (RSW)12 km from centre79 non-stop destinationsGold Coast Airport (OOL)20 km from centre19 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureFort MyersGold Coast
City population86,395607,665
People per km²681433
Museums within 10 km32
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C10 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Fort Myers 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.