VacationSelector
The Explanada de España, Alicante
AlicanteThe Explanada de España
The Esplanade boardwalk and its palms, Cairns
CairnsThe Esplanade boardwalk and its palms

Photos: Alicante by Emilio Sánchez Hernández, Pexels License; Cairns by Donaldytong, Public domain.

Alicante 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 Alicante for

  • food and drink
  • day trips
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Alicante’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. Alicante 82, Cairns 62: Alicante leads by 20 points.
Food & drink. Alicante 67, Cairns 40: Alicante leads by 27 points.
Culture & sights. Alicante 46, Cairns 22: Alicante leads by 24 points.
Nightlife. Alicante 60, Cairns 42: Alicante leads by 18 points.
Nature & outdoors. Alicante 63, Cairns 95: Cairns leads by 32 points.
Day trips. Alicante 72, Cairns 45: Alicante leads by 27 points.
Good for families. Alicante 68, Cairns 66: Alicante leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Alicante 66, Cairns 45: Alicante leads by 21 points.
Shopping & style. Alicante 44, Cairns 28: Alicante leads by 16 points.
Affordability. Alicante 60, Cairns 35: Alicante leads by 25 points.
Live music & performing arts. Alicante 37, Cairns 22: Alicante leads by 15 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Alicante 40, Cairns 45: Cairns leads by 5 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Alicante and Cairns.

Your match

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

Alicante
Best match
59match

Wins on food and drink and day trips 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.

Alicante in July

30 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
3 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
15 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
AlicanteCairns

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. Alicante: 1991-2020 normals, Alicante (2.8 km from centre). Cairns: 1993-2010 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Green Island Aws (27 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAlicanteCairns
Official languageSpanishEnglish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Australian Dollar (AUD)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+10
Emergency number112000
Elevation3 m7 m
Main airportAlicante-Elche Miguel Hernández Airport (ALC)10 km from centre126 non-stop destinationsCairns International Airport (CNS)6 km from centre32 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureAlicanteCairns
City population366,221146,778
People per km²1,819301
Museums within 10 km81
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
Swim season, months above 21 °C5 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Alicante 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). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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.