VacationSelector
The Texas State Capitol under a blue sky, Austin
AustinThe Texas State Capitol under a blue sky
The Esplanade boardwalk and its palms, Cairns
CairnsThe Esplanade boardwalk and its palms

Photos: Austin by LoneStarMike, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Cairns by Donaldytong, Public domain.

Austin 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 Austin for

  • live music and the arts
  • food and drink
  • nightlife

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

Choose Cairns for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • beaches
  • 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. Austin 30, Cairns 62: Cairns leads by 32 points.
Food & drink. Austin 66, Cairns 40: Austin leads by 26 points.
Culture & sights. Austin 40, Cairns 22: Austin leads by 18 points.
Nightlife. Austin 65, Cairns 42: Austin leads by 23 points.
Nature & outdoors. Austin 57, Cairns 95: Cairns leads by 38 points.
Day trips. Austin 58, Cairns 45: Austin leads by 13 points.
Good for families. Austin 55, Cairns 66: Cairns leads by 11 points.
Getting around. Austin 30, Cairns 45: Cairns leads by 15 points.
Shopping & style. Austin 45, Cairns 28: Austin leads by 17 points.
Affordability. Austin 33, Cairns 35: Cairns leads by 2 points.
Live music & performing arts. Austin 77, Cairns 22: Austin leads by 55 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Austin 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: Austin and Cairns.

Your match

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

Austin
Best match
50match

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

Cairns
46match

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

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Austin in July

36 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
49 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
No seasea
14 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
AustinCairns

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. Austin: 1991-2020 normals, Camp Mabry/Austin City Asos (3.7 km from centre). Cairns: 1993-2010 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Green Island Aws (27 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAustinCairns
Official language-English
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Australian Dollar (AUD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-6, UTC-5 in summerUTC+10
Emergency number911000
Elevation149 m7 m
Main airportAustin Bergstrom International Airport (AUS)13 km from centre91 non-stop destinationsCairns International Airport (CNS)6 km from centre32 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureAustinCairns
City population961,855146,778
People per km²1,217301
Museums within 10 km211
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 Austin 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.