VacationSelector
The Palais des Papes and the cathedral, Avignon
AvignonThe Palais des Papes and the cathedral
The Esplanade boardwalk and its palms, Cairns
CairnsThe Esplanade boardwalk and its palms

Photos: Avignon by BlueBreezeWiki, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Cairns by Donaldytong, Public domain.

Avignon 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 Avignon for

  • culture and sights
  • day trips
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Cairns for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • 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. Avignon 22, Cairns 62: Cairns leads by 40 points.
Food & drink. Avignon 57, Cairns 40: Avignon leads by 17 points.
Culture & sights. Avignon 69, Cairns 22: Avignon leads by 47 points.
Nightlife. Avignon 30, Cairns 42: Cairns leads by 12 points.
Nature & outdoors. Avignon 70, Cairns 95: Cairns leads by 25 points.
Day trips. Avignon 92, Cairns 45: Avignon leads by 47 points.
Good for families. Avignon 45, Cairns 66: Cairns leads by 21 points.
Getting around. Avignon 62, Cairns 45: Avignon leads by 17 points.
Shopping & style. Avignon 38, Cairns 28: Avignon leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Avignon 44, Cairns 35: Avignon leads by 9 points.
Live music & performing arts. Avignon 68, Cairns 22: Avignon leads by 46 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Avignon 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: Avignon and Cairns.

Your match

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

Avignon
Best match
53match

Wins on culture and sights and day trips 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.

Avignon in July

32 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
24 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
No seasea
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
AvignonCairns

Where the figures come from

Avignon 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.

Avignon's sunshine is measured 65 km from the centre, at Marseille / Marignane.

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. Avignon: 2005-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Avignon / Morières-lès-Avignon (8.6 km from centre). Cairns: 1993-2010 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Green Island Aws (27 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAvignonCairns
Official languageFrenchEnglish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Australian Dollar (AUD)
SocketsCE230 V, 50 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+10
Emergency number112000
Elevation10 m7 m
Main airportMarseille Provence Airport (MRS)65 km from centre126 non-stop destinationsCairns International Airport (CNS)6 km from centre32 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureAvignonCairns
City population92,188146,778
People per km²1,420301
Museums within 10 km111
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km61
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 Avignon 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). 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. 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.