VacationSelector
The Hôtel du Palais, Biarritz
BiarritzThe Hôtel du Palais
The Esplanade boardwalk and its palms, Cairns
CairnsThe Esplanade boardwalk and its palms

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

Biarritz 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 Biarritz for

  • day trips
  • food and drink
  • wellness

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

Choose Cairns for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • 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. Biarritz 68, Cairns 62: Biarritz leads by 6 points.
Food & drink. Biarritz 62, Cairns 40: Biarritz leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. Biarritz 33, Cairns 22: Biarritz leads by 11 points.
Nightlife. Biarritz 36, Cairns 42: Cairns leads by 6 points.
Nature & outdoors. Biarritz 74, Cairns 95: Cairns leads by 21 points.
Day trips. Biarritz 80, Cairns 45: Biarritz leads by 35 points.
Good for families. Biarritz 62, Cairns 66: Cairns leads by 4 points.
Getting around. Biarritz 58, Cairns 45: Biarritz leads by 13 points.
Shopping & style. Biarritz 42, Cairns 28: Biarritz leads by 14 points.
Affordability. Biarritz 30, Cairns 35: Cairns leads by 5 points.
Live music & performing arts. Biarritz 38, Cairns 22: Biarritz leads by 16 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Biarritz 64, Cairns 45: Biarritz leads by 19 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Biarritz and Cairns.

Your match

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

Biarritz
Best match
54match

Wins on day trips and food and drink with your weighting.

Cairns
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.

Biarritz in July

24 °Cdaytime high
17 °Cnight-time low
97 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
21 °Csea
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
BiarritzCairns

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. Biarritz: 1999-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Biarritz (2.5 km from centre). Cairns: 1993-2010 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Green Island Aws (27 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBiarritzCairns
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
Elevation0 m7 m
Main airportBiarritz Pays Basque airport (BIQ)3 km from centre25 non-stop destinationsCairns International Airport (CNS)6 km from centre32 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureBiarritzCairns
City population26,206146,778
People per km²2,240301
Museums within 10 km81
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
Swim season, months above 21 °C2 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Biarritz 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). 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. 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.