VacationSelector
Skiers at the Albion base of the ski area, Alta, Utah
Alta, UtahSkiers at the Albion base of the ski area
The Esplanade boardwalk and its palms, Cairns
CairnsThe Esplanade boardwalk and its palms

Photos: Alta, Utah by Sumanch, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Cairns by Donaldytong, Public domain.

Alta, Utah 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 Alta, Utah for

Alta, Utah does not lead in any category we score.

What lies behind each score is written up on Alta, Utah’s own page.

Choose Cairns for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • families

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. Alta, Utah 3, Cairns 62: Cairns leads by 59 points.
Food & drink. Alta, Utah 15, Cairns 40: Cairns leads by 25 points.
Culture & sights. Alta, Utah 5, Cairns 22: Cairns leads by 17 points.
Nightlife. Alta, Utah 4, Cairns 42: Cairns leads by 38 points.
Nature & outdoors. Alta, Utah 90, Cairns 95: Cairns leads by 5 points.
Day trips. Alta, Utah 40, Cairns 45: Cairns leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Alta, Utah 30, Cairns 66: Cairns leads by 36 points.
Getting around. Alta, Utah 35, Cairns 45: Cairns leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Alta, Utah 4, Cairns 28: Cairns leads by 24 points.
Affordability. Alta, Utah 15, Cairns 35: Cairns leads by 20 points.
Live music & performing arts. Alta, Utah 3, Cairns 22: Cairns leads by 19 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Alta, Utah 35, Cairns 45: Cairns leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Alta, Utah and Cairns.

Your match

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

Alta, Utah
23match

Has no clear advantage with the weighting you have chosen.

Cairns
Best match
46match

Wins on beaches and nightlife with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Alta, Utah in July

22 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
27 mmrain in the month
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Cairns in July

24 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
30 mmrain in the month
24 °Csea
11 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0200400600JFMAMJJASOND
Alta, UtahCairns

Where the figures come from

Alta, Utah has no weather station within reach, so its figures come from a gridded climate model rather than a measured record, and read a broad area rather than the city itself.

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. Alta, Utah: 1991-2020 normals, TerraClimate 4 km grid at the town, no weather station within 90 km. Cairns: 1993-2010 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Green Island Aws (27 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAlta, UtahCairns
Official language-English
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Australian Dollar (AUD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-7, UTC-6 in summerUTC+10
Emergency number911000
Elevation2,610 m7 m
Main airportSalt Lake City International Airport (SLC)37 km from centre108 non-stop destinationsCairns International Airport (CNS)6 km from centre32 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureAlta, UtahCairns
City population228146,778
People per km²19301
Museums within 10 km01
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C-12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Alta, Utah or Cairns somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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. 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. Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.