VacationSelector
Surfers Paradise from Narrowneck Beach, Gold Coast
Gold CoastSurfers Paradise from Narrowneck Beach
A yellow tram in a narrow street, Lisbon
LisbonA yellow tram in a narrow street

Photos: Gold Coast by Kgbo, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Lisbon by Riccardo Toso, Pexels License.

Gold Coast or Lisbon?

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
  • families
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Lisbon for

  • culture and sights
  • day trips
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Lisbon’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, Lisbon 50: Gold Coast leads by 42 points.
Food & drink. Gold Coast 47, Lisbon 75: Lisbon leads by 28 points.
Culture & sights. Gold Coast 15, Lisbon 78: Lisbon leads by 63 points.
Nightlife. Gold Coast 55, Lisbon 75: Lisbon leads by 20 points.
Nature & outdoors. Gold Coast 82, Lisbon 75: Gold Coast leads by 7 points.
Day trips. Gold Coast 52, Lisbon 82: Lisbon leads by 30 points.
Good for families. Gold Coast 89, Lisbon 62: Gold Coast leads by 27 points.
Getting around. Gold Coast 45, Lisbon 66: Lisbon leads by 21 points.
Shopping & style. Gold Coast 40, Lisbon 60: Lisbon leads by 20 points.
Affordability. Gold Coast 35, Lisbon 55: Lisbon leads by 20 points.
Live music & performing arts. Gold Coast 30, Lisbon 60: Lisbon leads by 30 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Gold Coast 42, Lisbon 36: Gold Coast leads by 6 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Gold Coast and Lisbon.

Your match

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

Gold Coast
52match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

Lisbon
Best match
65match

Wins on culture and sights 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

Lisbon in July

28 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
3 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Gold CoastLisbon

Where the figures come from

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. Gold Coast: 1991-2020 normals, Gold Coast Seaway (13 km from centre). Lisbon: 1991-2020 normals, Lisboa / Geof (1.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureGold CoastLisbon
Official languageEnglishPortuguese
CurrencyAustralian Dollar (AUD)Euro (EUR)
SocketsI230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+10UTC, UTC+1 in summer
Emergency number000112
Elevation12 m100 m
Main airportGold Coast Airport (OOL)20 km from centre19 non-stop destinationsLisbon Humberto Delgado Airport (LIS)7 km from centre156 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureGold CoastLisbon
City population607,665545,796
People per km²4335,453
Museums within 10 km280
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km13
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

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