VacationSelector
The Georgia State Capitol, Atlanta
AtlantaThe Georgia State Capitol
The Esplanade boardwalk and its palms, Cairns
CairnsThe Esplanade boardwalk and its palms

Photos: Atlanta by DXR, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Cairns by Donaldytong, Public domain.

Atlanta 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 Atlanta for

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

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

Choose Cairns for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • getting around

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. Atlanta 10, Cairns 62: Cairns leads by 52 points.
Food & drink. Atlanta 68, Cairns 40: Atlanta leads by 28 points.
Culture & sights. Atlanta 55, Cairns 22: Atlanta leads by 33 points.
Nightlife. Atlanta 65, Cairns 42: Atlanta leads by 23 points.
Nature & outdoors. Atlanta 60, Cairns 95: Cairns leads by 35 points.
Day trips. Atlanta 52, Cairns 45: Atlanta leads by 7 points.
Good for families. Atlanta 70, Cairns 66: Atlanta leads by 4 points.
Getting around. Atlanta 28, Cairns 45: Cairns leads by 17 points.
Shopping & style. Atlanta 50, Cairns 28: Atlanta leads by 22 points.
Affordability. Atlanta 40, Cairns 35: Atlanta leads by 5 points.
Live music & performing arts. Atlanta 62, Cairns 22: Atlanta leads by 40 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Atlanta 33, Cairns 45: Cairns leads by 12 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Atlanta and Cairns.

Your match

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

Atlanta
Best match
49match

Wins on live music and the arts and culture and sights with your weighting.

Cairns
46match

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

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Atlanta in July

32 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
120 mmrain in the month
No seasea
14 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
AtlantaCairns

Where the figures come from

Atlanta 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. Atlanta: 2006-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Atlanta / Carroll Heights (12.5 km from centre). Cairns: 1993-2010 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Green Island Aws (27 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAtlantaCairns
Official language-English
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Australian Dollar (AUD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC+10
Emergency number911000
Elevation225 m7 m
Main airportHartsfield Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL)14 km from centre238 non-stop destinationsCairns International Airport (CNS)6 km from centre32 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureAtlantaCairns
City population498,715146,778
People per km²1,433301
Museums within 10 km271
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 Atlanta 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). 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. 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.