VacationSelector
Surfers Paradise from Narrowneck Beach, Gold Coast
Gold CoastSurfers Paradise from Narrowneck Beach
St. Petersburg, Florida

Photos: Gold Coast by Kgbo, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Gold Coast or St. Petersburg, Florida?

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

  • nature and the outdoors
  • families
  • getting around

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

Choose St. Petersburg, Florida for

  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on St. Petersburg, Florida’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, St. Petersburg, Florida 85: Gold Coast leads by 7 points.
Food & drink. Gold Coast 47, St. Petersburg, Florida 52: St. Petersburg, Florida leads by 5 points.
Culture & sights. Gold Coast 15, St. Petersburg, Florida 52: St. Petersburg, Florida leads by 37 points.
Nightlife. Gold Coast 55, St. Petersburg, Florida 44: Gold Coast leads by 11 points.
Nature & outdoors. Gold Coast 82, St. Petersburg, Florida 58: Gold Coast leads by 24 points.
Day trips. Gold Coast 52, St. Petersburg, Florida 55: St. Petersburg, Florida leads by 3 points.
Good for families. Gold Coast 89, St. Petersburg, Florida 70: Gold Coast leads by 19 points.
Getting around. Gold Coast 45, St. Petersburg, Florida 33: Gold Coast leads by 12 points.
Shopping & style. Gold Coast 40, St. Petersburg, Florida 38: Gold Coast leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Gold Coast and St. Petersburg, Florida are level on 35.
Live music & performing arts. Gold Coast 30, St. Petersburg, Florida 42: St. Petersburg, Florida leads by 12 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Gold Coast 42, St. Petersburg, Florida 40: Gold Coast leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Gold Coast and St. Petersburg, Florida.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Gold Coast
52match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and families with your weighting.

St. Petersburg, Florida
50match

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

St. Petersburg, Florida in July

32 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
197 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
30 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Gold CoastSt. Petersburg, Florida

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). St. Petersburg, Florida: 1998-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Saint Petersburg (1.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureGold CoastSt. Petersburg, Florida
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 m134 m
Main airportGold Coast Airport (OOL)20 km from centre19 non-stop destinationsSt. Petersburg Clearwater International Airport (PIE)16 km from centre60 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureGold CoastSt. Petersburg, Florida
City population607,665258,308
People per km²433725
Museums within 10 km213
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months8 months

Where else could you go?

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