Photos: Belfast by Nico Kaiser, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Cairns by Donaldytong, Public domain.
Belfast 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 Belfast for
- culture and sights
- live music and the arts
- day trips
What lies behind each score is written up on Belfast’s own page.
Choose Cairns for
- beaches
- nature and the outdoors
- wellness
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.
What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Belfast and Cairns.
Your match
Pick a travel style or drag the sliders, and both match scores follow your weighting.
Wins on culture and sights and live music and the arts with your weighting.
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.
Belfast in July
Cairns in July
Daytime high, °C
Rainfall in the month, mm
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. Belfast: 1991-2020 normals, Belfast / Aldergrove Airport (19.4 km from centre). Cairns: 1993-2010 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Green Island Aws (27 km from centre).
Before you go
| Measure | Belfast | Cairns |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | English | English |
| Currency | Pound Sterling (GBP) | Australian Dollar (AUD) |
| Sockets | G230 V, 50 Hz | I230 V, 50 Hz |
| Driving side | Left | Left |
| Time zone | UTC, UTC+1 in summer | UTC+10 |
| Emergency number | 112 or 999 | 000 |
| Elevation | 3 m | 7 m |
| Main airport | George Best Belfast City Airport (BHD)4 km from centre25 non-stop destinations | Cairns International Airport (CNS)6 km from centre32 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 10 days | 11 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Belfast | Cairns |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 345,006 | 146,778 |
| People per km² | 3,000 | 301 |
| Museums within 10 km | 8 | 1 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 1 | 1 |
| Swim season, months above 21 °C | None | 12 months |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Belfast or Cairns somewhere new.