VacationSelector
Surfers Paradise from Narrowneck Beach, Gold Coast
Gold CoastSurfers Paradise from Narrowneck Beach
The Aare at Unterseen, Interlaken, Interlaken
InterlakenThe Aare at Unterseen, Interlaken

Photos: Gold Coast by Kgbo, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Interlaken by Roy Egloff, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Gold Coast or Interlaken?

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 Gold Coast for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • prices

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

Choose Interlaken for

  • getting around
  • day trips
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Interlaken’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. Gold Coast 92, Interlaken 30: Gold Coast leads by 62 points.
Food & drink. Gold Coast 47, Interlaken 25: Gold Coast leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. Gold Coast 15, Interlaken 8: Gold Coast leads by 7 points.
Nightlife. Gold Coast 55, Interlaken 15: Gold Coast leads by 40 points.
Nature & outdoors. Gold Coast 82, Interlaken 97: Interlaken leads by 15 points.
Day trips. Gold Coast 52, Interlaken 78: Interlaken leads by 26 points.
Good for families. Gold Coast 89, Interlaken 72: Gold Coast leads by 17 points.
Getting around. Gold Coast 45, Interlaken 80: Interlaken leads by 35 points.
Shopping & style. Gold Coast 40, Interlaken 22: Gold Coast leads by 18 points.
Affordability. Gold Coast 35, Interlaken 8: Gold Coast leads by 27 points.
Live music & performing arts. Gold Coast 30, Interlaken 15: Gold Coast leads by 15 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Gold Coast 42, Interlaken 40: Gold Coast leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Gold Coast and Interlaken.

Your match

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

Gold Coast
Best match
52match

Wins on beaches and nightlife with your weighting.

Interlaken
41match

Wins on getting around and day trips with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

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

Interlaken in July

24 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
126 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Gold CoastInterlaken

Where the figures come from

Gold Coast's sunshine is measured 75 km from the centre, at Brisbane Airport.

Interlaken 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. Gold Coast: 1991-2020 normals, Gold Coast Seaway (13 km from centre). Interlaken: 2005-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Meiringen / Unterbach (19.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureGold CoastInterlaken
Official languageEnglishFrench, German, Italian, Romansh
CurrencyAustralian Dollar (AUD)Swiss Franc (CHF)
SocketsI230 V, 50 HzCJ230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+10UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number000112
Elevation12 m571 m
Main airportGold Coast Airport (OOL)20 km from centre19 non-stop destinationsZürich Airport (ZRH)100 km from centre226 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days10 days

By the numbers

MeasureGold CoastInterlaken
City population607,6656,123
People per km²4331,424
Museums within 10 km23
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km12
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Gold Coast or Interlaken 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. 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.