VacationSelector
The Story Bridge from Howard Smith Wharves, Brisbane
BrisbaneThe Story Bridge from Howard Smith Wharves
The Esplanade boardwalk and its palms, Cairns
CairnsThe Esplanade boardwalk and its palms

Photos: Brisbane by Kgbo, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Cairns by Donaldytong, Public domain.

Brisbane 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 Brisbane for

  • live music and the arts
  • food and drink
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Cairns for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • beaches
  • 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.

Beaches & swimming. Brisbane 55, Cairns 62: Cairns leads by 7 points.
Food & drink. Brisbane 60, Cairns 40: Brisbane leads by 20 points.
Culture & sights. Brisbane 42, Cairns 22: Brisbane leads by 20 points.
Nightlife. Brisbane 55, Cairns 42: Brisbane leads by 13 points.
Nature & outdoors. Brisbane 74, Cairns 95: Cairns leads by 21 points.
Day trips. Brisbane 50, Cairns 45: Brisbane leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Brisbane 78, Cairns 66: Brisbane leads by 12 points.
Getting around. Brisbane 62, Cairns 45: Brisbane leads by 17 points.
Shopping & style. Brisbane 45, Cairns 28: Brisbane leads by 17 points.
Affordability. Brisbane 33, Cairns 35: Cairns leads by 2 points.
Live music & performing arts. Brisbane 55, Cairns 22: Brisbane leads by 33 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Brisbane 40, Cairns 45: Cairns leads by 5 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Brisbane and Cairns.

Your match

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

Brisbane
Best match
54match

Wins on live music and the arts and food and drink 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.

Brisbane in July

22 °Cdaytime high
10 °Cnight-time low
27 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
20 °Csea
11 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
BrisbaneCairns

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. Brisbane: 1991-2020 normals, Brisbane (4.5 km from centre). Cairns: 1993-2010 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Green Island Aws (27 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBrisbaneCairns
Official languageEnglishEnglish
CurrencyAustralian Dollar (AUD)Australian Dollar (AUD)
SocketsI230 V, 50 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+10UTC+10
Emergency number000000
Elevation0 m7 m
Main airportBrisbane International Airport (BNE)13 km from centre88 non-stop destinationsCairns International Airport (CNS)6 km from centre32 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureBrisbaneCairns
City population2,706,966146,778
People per km²171301
Museums within 10 km161
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C9 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Brisbane 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.