VacationSelector
Surfers Paradise from Narrowneck Beach, Gold Coast
Gold CoastSurfers Paradise from Narrowneck Beach
Cinderella Castle, Magic Kingdom, Orlando
OrlandoCinderella Castle, Magic Kingdom

Photos: Gold Coast by Kgbo, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Orlando by Michael Gray, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Gold Coast or Orlando?

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
  • getting around
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Orlando for

  • shopping
  • live music and the arts
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Orlando’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, Orlando 42: Gold Coast leads by 50 points.
Food & drink. Gold Coast 47, Orlando 48: Orlando leads by 1 points.
Culture & sights. Gold Coast 15, Orlando 22: Orlando leads by 7 points.
Nightlife. Gold Coast 55, Orlando 40: Gold Coast leads by 15 points.
Nature & outdoors. Gold Coast 82, Orlando 46: Gold Coast leads by 36 points.
Day trips. Gold Coast 52, Orlando 58: Orlando leads by 6 points.
Good for families. Gold Coast 89, Orlando 98: Orlando leads by 9 points.
Getting around. Gold Coast 45, Orlando 8: Gold Coast leads by 37 points.
Shopping & style. Gold Coast 40, Orlando 58: Orlando leads by 18 points.
Affordability. Gold Coast 35, Orlando 36: Orlando leads by 1 points.
Live music & performing arts. Gold Coast 30, Orlando 40: Orlando leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Gold Coast 42, Orlando 32: Gold Coast 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 Orlando.

Your match

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

Gold Coast
Best match
52match

Wins on beaches and getting around with your weighting.

Orlando
44match

Wins on shopping 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

Orlando in July

33 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
189 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Gold CoastOrlando

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). Orlando: 1991-2020 normals, Orlando Airport (14.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureGold CoastOrlando
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 m34 m
Main airportGold Coast Airport (OOL)20 km from centre19 non-stop destinationsOrlando International Airport (MCO)14 km from centre169 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureGold CoastOrlando
City population607,665334,854
People per km²4331,086
Museums within 10 km211
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 Orlando 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.