VacationSelector
Surfers Paradise from Narrowneck Beach, Gold Coast
Gold CoastSurfers Paradise from Narrowneck Beach
Brooklyn Bridge and Lower Manhattan, New York
New YorkBrooklyn Bridge and Lower Manhattan

Photos: Gold Coast by Kgbo, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; New York by Jakub Hałun, CC BY 4.0, cropped.

Gold Coast or New York?

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 New York for

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

What lies behind each score is written up on New York’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, New York 50: Gold Coast leads by 42 points.
Food & drink. Gold Coast 47, New York 92: New York leads by 45 points.
Culture & sights. Gold Coast 15, New York 89: New York leads by 74 points.
Nightlife. Gold Coast 55, New York 97: New York leads by 42 points.
Nature & outdoors. Gold Coast 82, New York 55: Gold Coast leads by 27 points.
Day trips. Gold Coast 52, New York 68: New York leads by 16 points.
Good for families. Gold Coast 89, New York 70: Gold Coast leads by 19 points.
Getting around. Gold Coast 45, New York 82: New York leads by 37 points.
Shopping & style. Gold Coast 40, New York 97: New York leads by 57 points.
Affordability. Gold Coast 35, New York 12: Gold Coast leads by 23 points.
Live music & performing arts. Gold Coast 30, New York 99: New York leads by 69 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Gold Coast and New York are level on 42.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Gold Coast and New York.

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.

New York
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

New York in July

30 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
107 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
22 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Gold CoastNew York

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). New York: 1991-2020 normals, LaGuardia Airport (12.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureGold CoastNew York
Official languageEnglish-
CurrencyAustralian Dollar (AUD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsI230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+10UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number000911
Elevation12 m25 m
Main airportGold Coast Airport (OOL)20 km from centre19 non-stop destinationsJohn F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK)21 km from centre189 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureGold CoastNew York
City population607,6658,804,190
People per km²4337,256
Museums within 10 km2157
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km12
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months3 months

Where else could you go?

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