VacationSelector
Surfers Paradise from Narrowneck Beach, Gold Coast
Gold CoastSurfers Paradise from Narrowneck Beach
Big Ben and Westminster Bridge, London
LondonBig Ben and Westminster Bridge

Photos: Gold Coast by Kgbo, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; London by AXP Photography, Pexels License.

Gold Coast or London?

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
  • nature and the outdoors
  • prices

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

Choose London for

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

What lies behind each score is written up on London’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, London 25: Gold Coast leads by 67 points.
Food & drink. Gold Coast 47, London 84: London leads by 37 points.
Culture & sights. Gold Coast 15, London 94: London leads by 79 points.
Nightlife. Gold Coast 55, London 88: London leads by 33 points.
Nature & outdoors. Gold Coast 82, London 57: Gold Coast leads by 25 points.
Day trips. Gold Coast 52, London 90: London leads by 38 points.
Good for families. Gold Coast 89, London 82: Gold Coast leads by 7 points.
Getting around. Gold Coast 45, London 85: London leads by 40 points.
Shopping & style. Gold Coast 40, London 95: London leads by 55 points.
Affordability. Gold Coast 35, London 15: Gold Coast leads by 20 points.
Live music & performing arts. Gold Coast 30, London 98: London leads by 68 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Gold Coast 42, London 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 London.

Your match

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

Gold Coast
52match

Wins on beaches and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

London
Best match
71match

Wins on culture and sights and live music and the arts 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

London in July

23 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
46 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
No seasea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Gold CoastLondon

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). London: 1992-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, London Weather Centre (1.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureGold CoastLondon
Official languageEnglishEnglish
CurrencyAustralian Dollar (AUD)Pound Sterling (GBP)
SocketsI230 V, 50 HzG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+10UTC, UTC+1 in summer
Emergency number000112 or 999
Elevation12 m4 m
Main airportGold Coast Airport (OOL)20 km from centre19 non-stop destinationsLondon Heathrow Airport (LHR)23 km from centre224 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days8 days

By the numbers

MeasureGold CoastLondon
City population607,6658,799,728
People per km²4335,598
Museums within 10 km2216
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km14
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 London 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.