VacationSelector
Surfers Paradise from Narrowneck Beach, Gold Coast
Gold CoastSurfers Paradise from Narrowneck Beach
Seven Mile Beach, Negril
NegrilSeven Mile Beach

Photos: Gold Coast by Kgbo, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Negril by gustavo.kunst, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Gold Coast or Negril?

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
  • shopping
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Negril for

  • wellness
  • prices
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Negril’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, Negril 93: Negril leads by 1 points.
Food & drink. Gold Coast 47, Negril 36: Gold Coast leads by 11 points.
Culture & sights. Gold Coast 15, Negril 8: Gold Coast leads by 7 points.
Nightlife. Gold Coast 55, Negril 40: Gold Coast leads by 15 points.
Nature & outdoors. Gold Coast 82, Negril 60: Gold Coast leads by 22 points.
Day trips. Gold Coast 52, Negril 35: Gold Coast leads by 17 points.
Good for families. Gold Coast 89, Negril 45: Gold Coast leads by 44 points.
Getting around. Gold Coast 45, Negril 30: Gold Coast leads by 15 points.
Shopping & style. Gold Coast 40, Negril 15: Gold Coast leads by 25 points.
Affordability. Gold Coast 35, Negril 44: Negril leads by 9 points.
Live music & performing arts. Gold Coast 30, Negril 33: Negril leads by 3 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Gold Coast 42, Negril 52: Negril 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 Negril.

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 shopping with your weighting.

Negril
41match

Wins on wellness and prices 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

Negril in July

34 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
174 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Gold CoastNegril

Where the figures come from

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

Negril's temperatures are measured 52 km from the centre, at Montego Bay / Sangster.

Negril 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). Negril: 1991-2020 normals, Montego Bay / Sangster (51.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureGold CoastNegril
Official languageEnglishEnglish, Jamaican Patois
CurrencyAustralian Dollar (AUD)Jamaican Dollar (JMD)
SocketsI230 V, 50 HzAB116 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+10UTC-5
Emergency number000Police 110/112/119/911, ambulance 110, fire 110
Elevation12 m10 m
Main airportGold Coast Airport (OOL)20 km from centre19 non-stop destinationsSangster International Airport (MBJ)52 km from centre48 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days10 days

By the numbers

MeasureGold CoastNegril
City population607,6654,500
People per km²433-
Museums within 10 km20
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 Negril 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.