VacationSelector
Surfers Paradise from Narrowneck Beach, Gold Coast
Gold CoastSurfers Paradise from Narrowneck Beach
Painted wooden houses under palms in Key West, Key West
Key WestPainted wooden houses under palms in Key West

Photos: Gold Coast by Kgbo, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Key West by Dominik Gryzbon, Pexels License.

Gold Coast or Key West?

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

  • families
  • beaches
  • day trips

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

Choose Key West for

  • culture and sights
  • getting around
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Key West’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, Key West 60: Gold Coast leads by 32 points.
Food & drink. Gold Coast 47, Key West 45: Gold Coast leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Gold Coast 15, Key West 40: Key West leads by 25 points.
Nightlife. Gold Coast 55, Key West 62: Key West leads by 7 points.
Nature & outdoors. Gold Coast 82, Key West 62: Gold Coast leads by 20 points.
Day trips. Gold Coast 52, Key West 28: Gold Coast leads by 24 points.
Good for families. Gold Coast 89, Key West 40: Gold Coast leads by 49 points.
Getting around. Gold Coast 45, Key West 62: Key West leads by 17 points.
Shopping & style. Gold Coast 40, Key West 30: Gold Coast leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Gold Coast 35, Key West 15: Gold Coast leads by 20 points.
Live music & performing arts. Gold Coast 30, Key West 38: Key West leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Gold Coast 42, Key West 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 Key West.

Your match

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

Gold Coast
Best match
52match

Wins on families and beaches with your weighting.

Key West
44match

Wins on culture and sights 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.

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

Key West in July

32 °Cdaytime high
27 °Cnight-time low
84 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
30 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Gold CoastKey West

Where the figures come from

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

Key West's temperatures are measured 69 km from the centre, at Key West Airport.

Key West 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). Key West: 1991-2020 normals, Key West Airport (69.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureGold CoastKey West
Official languageEnglish-
CurrencyAustralian Dollar (AUD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsI230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+10UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number000911
Elevation12 m4 m
Main airportGold Coast Airport (OOL)20 km from centre19 non-stop destinationsKey West International Airport (EYW)2 km from centre24 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureGold CoastKey West
City population607,66526,444
People per km²4331,407
Museums within 10 km27
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months12 months

Where else could you go?

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