VacationSelector
The Church of Saint Sava, Belgrade
BelgradeThe Church of Saint Sava
The Esplanade boardwalk and its palms, Cairns
CairnsThe Esplanade boardwalk and its palms

Photos: Belgrade by Petar Milošević, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Cairns by Donaldytong, Public domain.

Belgrade 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 Belgrade for

  • nightlife
  • prices
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Cairns for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • beaches
  • 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. Belgrade 40, Cairns 62: Cairns leads by 22 points.
Food & drink. Belgrade 60, Cairns 40: Belgrade leads by 20 points.
Culture & sights. Belgrade 52, Cairns 22: Belgrade leads by 30 points.
Nightlife. Belgrade 80, Cairns 42: Belgrade leads by 38 points.
Nature & outdoors. Belgrade 50, Cairns 95: Cairns leads by 45 points.
Day trips. Belgrade 60, Cairns 45: Belgrade leads by 15 points.
Good for families. Belgrade 45, Cairns 66: Cairns leads by 21 points.
Getting around. Belgrade 55, Cairns 45: Belgrade leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Belgrade 42, Cairns 28: Belgrade leads by 14 points.
Affordability. Belgrade 70, Cairns 35: Belgrade leads by 35 points.
Live music & performing arts. Belgrade 55, Cairns 22: Belgrade leads by 33 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Belgrade 30, Cairns 45: Cairns leads by 15 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Belgrade and Cairns.

Your match

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

Belgrade
Best match
53match

Wins on nightlife and prices 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.

Belgrade in July

29 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
67 mmrain in the month
10 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
BelgradeCairns

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. Belgrade: 1991-2020 normals, Beograd (2.1 km from centre). Cairns: 1993-2010 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Green Island Aws (27 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBelgradeCairns
Official languageSerbianEnglish
CurrencySerbian Dinar (RSD)Australian Dollar (AUD)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+10
Emergency numberPolice 92/192, ambulance 94/194, fire 93/193000
Elevation117 m7 m
Main airportBelgrade Nikola Tesla Airport (BEG)12 km from centre125 non-stop destinationsCairns International Airport (CNS)6 km from centre32 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureBelgradeCairns
City population1,197,714146,778
People per km²3,327301
Museums within 10 km651
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 Belgrade 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.