VacationSelector
Surfers Paradise from Narrowneck Beach, Gold Coast
Gold CoastSurfers Paradise from Narrowneck Beach
The red cable car above Wellington, Wellington
WellingtonThe red cable car above Wellington

Photos: Gold Coast by Kgbo, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Wellington by lumoplank, CC0.

Gold Coast or Wellington?

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
  • families
  • day trips

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

Choose Wellington for

  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Wellington’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, Wellington 33: Gold Coast leads by 59 points.
Food & drink. Gold Coast 47, Wellington 62: Wellington leads by 15 points.
Culture & sights. Gold Coast 15, Wellington 44: Wellington leads by 29 points.
Nightlife. Gold Coast 55, Wellington 45: Gold Coast leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. Gold Coast 82, Wellington 78: Gold Coast leads by 4 points.
Day trips. Gold Coast 52, Wellington 40: Gold Coast leads by 12 points.
Good for families. Gold Coast 89, Wellington 62: Gold Coast leads by 27 points.
Getting around. Gold Coast 45, Wellington 68: Wellington leads by 23 points.
Shopping & style. Gold Coast 40, Wellington 42: Wellington leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Gold Coast 35, Wellington 33: Gold Coast leads by 2 points.
Live music & performing arts. Gold Coast 30, Wellington 56: Wellington leads by 26 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Gold Coast 42, Wellington 30: Gold Coast leads by 12 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Gold Coast and Wellington.

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 families with your weighting.

Wellington
49match

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

Wellington in July

12 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
111 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
12 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Gold CoastWellington

Where the figures come from

Gold Coast's sunshine is measured 75 km from the centre, at Brisbane Airport.

Wellington's sunshine is measured 47 km from the centre, at Paraparaumu Aerodrome.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Gold Coast: 1991-2020 normals, Gold Coast Seaway (13 km from centre). Wellington: 1961-1990 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Wellington Aerodrome Aws (5.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureGold CoastWellington
Official languageEnglishEnglish, New Zealand Sign Language, Māori
CurrencyAustralian Dollar (AUD)New Zealand Dollar (NZD)
SocketsI230 V, 50 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+10UTC+12, UTC+13 in summer
Emergency number000111
Elevation12 m0 m
Main airportGold Coast Airport (OOL)20 km from centre19 non-stop destinationsWellington International Airport (WLG)5 km from centre20 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureGold CoastWellington
City population607,665216,200
People per km²433487
Museums within 10 km212
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
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 Wellington 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.