VacationSelector
Surfers Paradise from Narrowneck Beach, Gold Coast
Gold CoastSurfers Paradise from Narrowneck Beach
The Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier, Santa Monica
Santa MonicaThe Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier

Photos: Gold Coast by Kgbo, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Santa Monica by Domenico Convertini, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Gold Coast or Santa Monica?

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
  • prices
  • families

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

Choose Santa Monica for

  • culture and sights
  • shopping
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Santa Monica’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, Santa Monica 66: Gold Coast leads by 26 points.
Food & drink. Gold Coast 47, Santa Monica 60: Santa Monica leads by 13 points.
Culture & sights. Gold Coast 15, Santa Monica 35: Santa Monica leads by 20 points.
Nightlife. Gold Coast 55, Santa Monica 38: Gold Coast leads by 17 points.
Nature & outdoors. Gold Coast 82, Santa Monica 72: Gold Coast leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Gold Coast 52, Santa Monica 64: Santa Monica leads by 12 points.
Good for families. Gold Coast 89, Santa Monica 70: Gold Coast leads by 19 points.
Getting around. Gold Coast 45, Santa Monica 52: Santa Monica leads by 7 points.
Shopping & style. Gold Coast 40, Santa Monica 56: Santa Monica leads by 16 points.
Affordability. Gold Coast 35, Santa Monica 14: Gold Coast leads by 21 points.
Live music & performing arts. Gold Coast 30, Santa Monica 38: Santa Monica leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Gold Coast 42, Santa Monica 45: Santa Monica leads by 3 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Gold Coast and Santa Monica.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Gold Coast
52match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

Santa Monica
51match

Wins on culture and sights and shopping 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

Santa Monica in July

24 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
20 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Gold CoastSanta Monica

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). Santa Monica: 1991-2020 normals, Los Angeles Airport (13.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureGold CoastSanta Monica
Official languageEnglish-
CurrencyAustralian Dollar (AUD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsI230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+10UTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number000911
Elevation12 m32 m
Main airportGold Coast Airport (OOL)20 km from centre19 non-stop destinationsLos Angeles International Airport (LAX)11 km from centre177 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureGold CoastSanta Monica
City population607,66593,076
People per km²4334,270
Museums within 10 km219
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

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