VacationSelector
The Adelaide skyline and the footbridge over the River Torrens, Adelaide
AdelaideThe Adelaide skyline and the footbridge over the River Torrens
The Esplanade boardwalk and its palms, Cairns
CairnsThe Esplanade boardwalk and its palms

Photos: Adelaide by Ardash Muradian, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Cairns by Donaldytong, Public domain.

Adelaide or Cairns?

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 Adelaide for

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

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

Choose Cairns for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Cairns’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. Adelaide 68, Cairns 62: Adelaide leads by 6 points.
Food & drink. Adelaide 72, Cairns 40: Adelaide leads by 32 points.
Culture & sights. Adelaide 48, Cairns 22: Adelaide leads by 26 points.
Nightlife. Adelaide and Cairns are level on 42.
Nature & outdoors. Adelaide 66, Cairns 95: Cairns leads by 29 points.
Day trips. Adelaide 60, Cairns 45: Adelaide leads by 15 points.
Good for families. Adelaide 70, Cairns 66: Adelaide leads by 4 points.
Getting around. Adelaide 57, Cairns 45: Adelaide leads by 12 points.
Shopping & style. Adelaide 44, Cairns 28: Adelaide leads by 16 points.
Affordability. Adelaide 40, Cairns 35: Adelaide leads by 5 points.
Live music & performing arts. Adelaide 63, Cairns 22: Adelaide leads by 41 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Adelaide 42, Cairns 45: Cairns leads by 3 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Adelaide and Cairns.

Your match

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

Adelaide
Best match
56match

Wins on live music and the arts and food and drink with your weighting.

Cairns
46match

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

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Adelaide in July

16 °Cdaytime high
8 °Cnight-time low
72 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
14 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Cairns in July

24 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
30 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
24 °Csea
11 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0200400600JFMAMJJASOND
AdelaideCairns

Where the figures come from

Cairns's temperatures are measured 27 km from the centre, at Green Island Aws.

Cairns has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Adelaide: 1991-2020 normals, Adelaide (West Terrace / ngayirdapira) (3.1 km from centre). Cairns: 1993-2010 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Green Island Aws (27 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAdelaideCairns
Official languageEnglishEnglish
CurrencyAustralian Dollar (AUD)Australian Dollar (AUD)
SocketsI230 V, 50 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+9:30, UTC+10:30 in summerUTC+10
Emergency number000000
Elevation1 m7 m
Main airportAdelaide International Airport (ADL)6 km from centre35 non-stop destinationsCairns International Airport (CNS)6 km from centre32 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureAdelaideCairns
City population1,387,290146,778
People per km²1,071301
Museums within 10 km131
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C3 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Adelaide or Cairns 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.