VacationSelector
Surfers Paradise from Narrowneck Beach, Gold Coast
Gold CoastSurfers Paradise from Narrowneck Beach
Botero sculptures on Plaza Botero, Medellin
MedellinBotero sculptures on Plaza Botero

Photos: Gold Coast by Kgbo, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Medellin by Steffen Schmitz, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Gold Coast or Medellin?

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 Medellin for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Medellin’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, Medellin 5: Gold Coast leads by 87 points.
Food & drink. Gold Coast 47, Medellin 58: Medellin leads by 11 points.
Culture & sights. Gold Coast 15, Medellin 42: Medellin leads by 27 points.
Nightlife. Gold Coast 55, Medellin 76: Medellin leads by 21 points.
Nature & outdoors. Gold Coast 82, Medellin 66: Gold Coast leads by 16 points.
Day trips. Gold Coast 52, Medellin 58: Medellin leads by 6 points.
Good for families. Gold Coast 89, Medellin 50: Gold Coast leads by 39 points.
Getting around. Gold Coast 45, Medellin 55: Medellin leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Gold Coast 40, Medellin 45: Medellin leads by 5 points.
Affordability. Gold Coast 35, Medellin 80: Medellin leads by 45 points.
Live music & performing arts. Gold Coast 30, Medellin 42: Medellin leads by 12 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Gold Coast 42, Medellin 30: Gold Coast leads by 12 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Gold Coast and Medellin.

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 beaches and families with your weighting.

Medellin
51match

Wins on prices 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

Medellin in July

29 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
133 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
12 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
Gold CoastMedellin

Where the figures come from

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

Medellin 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). Medellin: 1958-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Medellin / Olaya Herrera (5.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureGold CoastMedellin
Official languageEnglishSpanish
CurrencyAustralian Dollar (AUD)Colombian Peso (COP)
SocketsI230 V, 50 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+10UTC-5
Emergency number000123
Elevation12 m1,405 m
Main airportGold Coast Airport (OOL)20 km from centre19 non-stop destinationsJose Maria Córdova International Airport (MDE)19 km from centre41 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days19 days

By the numbers

MeasureGold CoastMedellin
City population607,6652,529,403
People per km²4336,644
Museums within 10 km214
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
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 Medellin 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.