VacationSelector
Surfers Paradise from Narrowneck Beach, Gold Coast
Gold CoastSurfers Paradise from Narrowneck Beach
Shitennō-ji temple, Osaka
OsakaShitennō-ji temple

Photos: Gold Coast by Kgbo, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Osaka by Sarmat Batagov, Pexels License.

Gold Coast or Osaka?

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
  • families

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

Choose Osaka for

  • culture and sights
  • day trips
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Osaka’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, Osaka 34: Gold Coast leads by 58 points.
Food & drink. Gold Coast 47, Osaka 91: Osaka leads by 44 points.
Culture & sights. Gold Coast 15, Osaka 63: Osaka leads by 48 points.
Nightlife. Gold Coast 55, Osaka 80: Osaka leads by 25 points.
Nature & outdoors. Gold Coast 82, Osaka 58: Gold Coast leads by 24 points.
Day trips. Gold Coast 52, Osaka 97: Osaka leads by 45 points.
Good for families. Gold Coast 89, Osaka 88: Gold Coast leads by 1 points.
Getting around. Gold Coast 45, Osaka 90: Osaka leads by 45 points.
Shopping & style. Gold Coast 40, Osaka 80: Osaka leads by 40 points.
Affordability. Gold Coast 35, Osaka 60: Osaka leads by 25 points.
Live music & performing arts. Gold Coast 30, Osaka 66: Osaka leads by 36 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Gold Coast 42, Osaka 66: Osaka leads by 24 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Gold Coast and Osaka.

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.

Osaka
Best match
73match

Wins on culture and sights and day trips 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

Osaka in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
175 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Gold CoastOsaka

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). Osaka: 1991-2020 normals, Osaka (1.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureGold CoastOsaka
Official languageEnglishJapanese
CurrencyAustralian Dollar (AUD)Yen (JPY)
SocketsI230 V, 50 HzAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the region
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+10UTC+9
Emergency number000Police 110, fire 119
Elevation12 m20 m
Main airportGold Coast Airport (OOL)20 km from centre19 non-stop destinationsKansai International Airport (KIX)38 km from centre62 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureGold CoastOsaka
City population607,6652,751,862
People per km²43312,340
Museums within 10 km244
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km16
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months5 months

Where else could you go?

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