VacationSelector
Surfers Paradise from Narrowneck Beach, Gold Coast
Gold CoastSurfers Paradise from Narrowneck Beach
Fishing boats in the harbour, La Spezia
La SpeziaFishing boats in the harbour

Photos: Gold Coast by Kgbo, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; La Spezia by Irina Balashova, Pexels License.

Gold Coast or La Spezia?

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
  • nightlife

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

Choose La Spezia for

  • day trips
  • culture and sights
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on La Spezia’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, La Spezia 60: Gold Coast leads by 32 points.
Food & drink. Gold Coast 47, La Spezia 58: La Spezia leads by 11 points.
Culture & sights. Gold Coast 15, La Spezia 40: La Spezia leads by 25 points.
Nightlife. Gold Coast 55, La Spezia 28: Gold Coast leads by 27 points.
Nature & outdoors. Gold Coast 82, La Spezia 79: Gold Coast leads by 3 points.
Day trips. Gold Coast 52, La Spezia 87: La Spezia leads by 35 points.
Good for families. Gold Coast 89, La Spezia 48: Gold Coast leads by 41 points.
Getting around. Gold Coast 45, La Spezia 70: La Spezia leads by 25 points.
Shopping & style. Gold Coast 40, La Spezia 35: Gold Coast leads by 5 points.
Affordability. Gold Coast 35, La Spezia 50: La Spezia leads by 15 points.
Live music & performing arts. Gold Coast 30, La Spezia 28: Gold Coast leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Gold Coast 42, La Spezia 32: Gold Coast leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Gold Coast and La Spezia.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Gold Coast
52match

Wins on families and beaches with your weighting.

La Spezia
51match

Wins on day trips and culture and sights 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

La Spezia in July

30 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
20 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
24 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Gold CoastLa Spezia

Where the figures come from

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

La Spezia's temperatures are measured 65 km from the centre, at Pisa / S. Giusto.

La Spezia 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). La Spezia: 1991-2020 normals, Pisa / S. Giusto (64.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureGold CoastLa Spezia
Official languageEnglishItalian
CurrencyAustralian Dollar (AUD)Euro (EUR)
SocketsI230 V, 50 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+10UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number000112
Elevation12 m3 m
Main airportGold Coast Airport (OOL)20 km from centre19 non-stop destinationsPisa International Airport (PSA)65 km from centre82 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureGold CoastLa Spezia
City population607,66592,119
People per km²4331,792
Museums within 10 km212
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km12
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months4 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Gold Coast or La Spezia 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.