VacationSelector
Surfers Paradise from Narrowneck Beach, Gold Coast
Gold CoastSurfers Paradise from Narrowneck Beach
The Assembly Hall on Temple Square, Salt Lake City
Salt Lake CityThe Assembly Hall on Temple Square

Photos: Gold Coast by Kgbo, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Salt Lake City by hakkun, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Gold Coast or Salt Lake City?

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
  • nightlife
  • day trips

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

Choose Salt Lake City for

  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Salt Lake City’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, Salt Lake City 12: Gold Coast leads by 80 points.
Food & drink. Gold Coast 47, Salt Lake City 40: Gold Coast leads by 7 points.
Culture & sights. Gold Coast 15, Salt Lake City 42: Salt Lake City leads by 27 points.
Nightlife. Gold Coast 55, Salt Lake City 30: Gold Coast leads by 25 points.
Nature & outdoors. Gold Coast 82, Salt Lake City 90: Salt Lake City leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Gold Coast 52, Salt Lake City 34: Gold Coast leads by 18 points.
Good for families. Gold Coast 89, Salt Lake City 72: Gold Coast leads by 17 points.
Getting around. Gold Coast 45, Salt Lake City 42: Gold Coast leads by 3 points.
Shopping & style. Gold Coast 40, Salt Lake City 36: Gold Coast leads by 4 points.
Affordability. Gold Coast 35, Salt Lake City 40: Salt Lake City leads by 5 points.
Live music & performing arts. Gold Coast 30, Salt Lake City 55: Salt Lake City leads by 25 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Gold Coast 42, Salt Lake City 38: Gold Coast leads by 4 points.
0255075100

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

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 nightlife with your weighting.

Salt Lake City
44match

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

Salt Lake City in July

34 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
13 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Gold CoastSalt Lake City

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). Salt Lake City: 1991-2020 normals, Salt Lake City International Airport (7.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureGold CoastSalt Lake City
Official languageEnglish-
CurrencyAustralian Dollar (AUD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsI230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+10UTC-7, UTC-6 in summer
Emergency number000911
Elevation12 m1,288 m
Main airportGold Coast Airport (OOL)20 km from centre19 non-stop destinationsSalt Lake City International Airport (SLC)9 km from centre108 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureGold CoastSalt Lake City
City population607,665199,723
People per km²433690
Museums within 10 km212
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 Salt Lake City 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.