VacationSelector
The beach with its parasols and the boardwalk, Bethany Beach
Bethany BeachThe beach with its parasols and the boardwalk
The Esplanade boardwalk and its palms, Cairns
CairnsThe Esplanade boardwalk and its palms

Photos: Bethany Beach by Doug Olson, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Cairns by Donaldytong, Public domain.

Bethany Beach 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 Bethany Beach for

  • beaches

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

Choose Cairns for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • nightlife
  • culture and sights

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. Bethany Beach 72, Cairns 62: Bethany Beach leads by 10 points.
Food & drink. Bethany Beach 35, Cairns 40: Cairns leads by 5 points.
Culture & sights. Bethany Beach 10, Cairns 22: Cairns leads by 12 points.
Nightlife. Bethany Beach 12, Cairns 42: Cairns leads by 30 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bethany Beach 48, Cairns 95: Cairns leads by 47 points.
Day trips. Bethany Beach and Cairns are level on 45.
Good for families. Bethany Beach and Cairns are level on 66.
Getting around. Bethany Beach 33, Cairns 45: Cairns leads by 12 points.
Shopping & style. Bethany Beach and Cairns are level on 28.
Affordability. Bethany Beach 30, Cairns 35: Cairns leads by 5 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bethany Beach 14, Cairns 22: Cairns leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bethany Beach 33, Cairns 45: Cairns leads by 12 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Bethany Beach and Cairns.

Your match

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

Bethany Beach
36match

Wins on beaches with your weighting.

Cairns
Best match
46match

Wins on nature and the outdoors 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.

Bethany Beach in July

31 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
95 mmrain in the month
23 °Csea
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
Bethany BeachCairns

Where the figures come from

Bethany Beach's temperatures are measured 45 km from the centre, at Salisbury / Quail Ridge.

Bethany Beach 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. Bethany Beach: 1991-2020 normals, Salisbury / Quail Ridge (44.9 km from centre). Cairns: 1993-2010 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Green Island Aws (27 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBethany BeachCairns
Official language-English
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Australian Dollar (AUD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC+10
Emergency number911000
Elevation3 m7 m
Main airportSalisbury Ocean City Wicomico Regional Airport (SBY)45 km from centre4 non-stop destinationsCairns International Airport (CNS)6 km from centre32 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureBethany BeachCairns
City population954146,778
People per km²318301
Museums within 10 km01
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C3 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Bethany Beach 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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. 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.