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The Santa Catalina arch below Volcan de Agua, Antigua Guatemala
Antigua GuatemalaThe Santa Catalina arch below Volcan de Agua
The Esplanade boardwalk and its palms, Cairns
CairnsThe Esplanade boardwalk and its palms

Photos: Antigua Guatemala by Chad Davis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Cairns by Donaldytong, Public domain.

Antigua Guatemala 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 Antigua Guatemala for

  • culture and sights
  • prices
  • shopping

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

Choose Cairns for

  • beaches
  • families
  • nature and the outdoors

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. Antigua Guatemala 6, Cairns 62: Cairns leads by 56 points.
Food & drink. Antigua Guatemala 48, Cairns 40: Antigua Guatemala leads by 8 points.
Culture & sights. Antigua Guatemala 68, Cairns 22: Antigua Guatemala leads by 46 points.
Nightlife. Antigua Guatemala 34, Cairns 42: Cairns leads by 8 points.
Nature & outdoors. Antigua Guatemala 78, Cairns 95: Cairns leads by 17 points.
Day trips. Antigua Guatemala 55, Cairns 45: Antigua Guatemala leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Antigua Guatemala 38, Cairns 66: Cairns leads by 28 points.
Getting around. Antigua Guatemala 60, Cairns 45: Antigua Guatemala leads by 15 points.
Shopping & style. Antigua Guatemala 45, Cairns 28: Antigua Guatemala leads by 17 points.
Affordability. Antigua Guatemala 67, Cairns 35: Antigua Guatemala leads by 32 points.
Live music & performing arts. Antigua Guatemala and Cairns are level on 22.
Wellness & relaxation. Antigua Guatemala 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: Antigua Guatemala and Cairns.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Antigua Guatemala
47match

Wins on culture and sights and prices with your weighting.

Cairns
46match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Antigua Guatemala in July

25 °Cdaytime high
17 °Cnight-time low
188 mmrain in the month
No seasea
13 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

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0200400600JFMAMJJASOND
Antigua GuatemalaCairns

Where the figures come from

Antigua Guatemala 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.

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. Antigua Guatemala: 1998-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Guatemala Aeropuertola Aurora (23.5 km from centre). Cairns: 1993-2010 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Green Island Aws (27 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAntigua GuatemalaCairns
Official languageSpanishEnglish
CurrencyQuetzal (GTQ)Australian Dollar (AUD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-6UTC+10
Emergency numberPolice 110/120, ambulance 128, fire 123000
Elevation1,582 m7 m
Main airportLa Aurora International Airport (GUA)22 km from centre19 non-stop destinationsCairns International Airport (CNS)6 km from centre32 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureAntigua GuatemalaCairns
City population59,091146,778
People per km²-301
Museums within 10 km21
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
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 Antigua Guatemala 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. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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.