VacationSelector
Surfers Paradise from Narrowneck Beach, Gold Coast
Gold CoastSurfers Paradise from Narrowneck Beach
The CN Tower and skyline from the Toronto Islands, Toronto
TorontoThe CN Tower and skyline from the Toronto Islands

Photos: Gold Coast by Kgbo, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Toronto by Dillan Payne, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Gold Coast or Toronto?

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 Toronto for

  • live music and the arts
  • culture and sights
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Toronto’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, Toronto 34: Gold Coast leads by 58 points.
Food & drink. Gold Coast 47, Toronto 70: Toronto leads by 23 points.
Culture & sights. Gold Coast 15, Toronto 50: Toronto leads by 35 points.
Nightlife. Gold Coast 55, Toronto 62: Toronto leads by 7 points.
Nature & outdoors. Gold Coast 82, Toronto 52: Gold Coast leads by 30 points.
Day trips. Gold Coast 52, Toronto 50: Gold Coast leads by 2 points.
Good for families. Gold Coast 89, Toronto 74: Gold Coast leads by 15 points.
Getting around. Gold Coast 45, Toronto 65: Toronto leads by 20 points.
Shopping & style. Gold Coast 40, Toronto 66: Toronto leads by 26 points.
Affordability. Gold Coast 35, Toronto 34: Gold Coast leads by 1 points.
Live music & performing arts. Gold Coast 30, Toronto 72: Toronto leads by 42 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Gold Coast 42, Toronto 33: Gold Coast leads by 9 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Gold Coast and Toronto.

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.

Toronto
Best match
55match

Wins on live music and the arts and culture and sights 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

Toronto in July

27 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
83 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
20 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Gold CoastToronto

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). Toronto: 1991-2020 normals, Toronto City (1.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureGold CoastToronto
Official languageEnglishFrench, English
CurrencyAustralian Dollar (AUD)Canadian Dollar (CAD)
SocketsI230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+10UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number000911
Elevation12 m76 m
Main airportGold Coast Airport (OOL)20 km from centre19 non-stop destinationsToronto Pearson International Airport (YYZ)20 km from centre191 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureGold CoastToronto
City population607,6652,794,356
People per km²4334,434
Museums within 10 km232
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months1 month

Where else could you go?

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