VacationSelector
Skiers among snow-covered firs, Beaver Creek
Beaver CreekSkiers among snow-covered firs
The Esplanade boardwalk and its palms, Cairns
CairnsThe Esplanade boardwalk and its palms

Photos: Beaver Creek by Joe Lin, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Cairns by Donaldytong, Public domain.

Beaver Creek 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 Beaver Creek for

  • live music and the arts
  • wellness

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

Choose Cairns for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • prices

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. Beaver Creek 6, Cairns 62: Cairns leads by 56 points.
Food & drink. Beaver Creek 38, Cairns 40: Cairns leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Beaver Creek 7, Cairns 22: Cairns leads by 15 points.
Nightlife. Beaver Creek 12, Cairns 42: Cairns leads by 30 points.
Nature & outdoors. Beaver Creek 90, Cairns 95: Cairns leads by 5 points.
Day trips. Beaver Creek 40, Cairns 45: Cairns leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Beaver Creek 62, Cairns 66: Cairns leads by 4 points.
Getting around. Beaver Creek and Cairns are level on 45.
Shopping & style. Beaver Creek 22, Cairns 28: Cairns leads by 6 points.
Affordability. Beaver Creek 5, Cairns 35: Cairns leads by 30 points.
Live music & performing arts. Beaver Creek 36, Cairns 22: Beaver Creek leads by 14 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Beaver Creek 55, Cairns 45: Beaver Creek leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Beaver Creek and Cairns.

Your match

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

Beaver Creek
35match

Wins on live music and the arts and wellness with your weighting.

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.

Beaver Creek in July

29 °Cdaytime high
10 °Cnight-time low
31 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

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0200400600JFMAMJJASOND
Beaver CreekCairns

Where the figures come from

Beaver Creek's temperatures are measured 34 km from the centre, at Eagle County / Gypsum.

Beaver Creek's station stands 268 m below the city centre, so the centre is likely a little cooler than the figures say.

Beaver Creek 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. Beaver Creek: 1992-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Eagle County / Gypsum (33.8 km from centre). Cairns: 1993-2010 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Green Island Aws (27 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBeaver CreekCairns
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
Elevation2,264 m7 m
Main airportEagle County Regional Airport (EGE)34 km from centre16 non-stop destinationsCairns International Airport (CNS)6 km from centre32 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureBeaver CreekCairns
City population-146,778
People per km²-301
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 Beaver Creek or Cairns somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.