VacationSelector
The Esplanade boardwalk and its palms, Cairns
CairnsThe Esplanade boardwalk and its palms
Fort San Pedro in Cebu City, Cebu
CebuFort San Pedro in Cebu City

Photos: Cairns by Donaldytong, Public domain; Cebu by xiquinhosilva, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Cairns or Cebu?

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 Cairns for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • families
  • getting around

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

Choose Cebu for

  • prices
  • food and drink
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Cebu’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. Cairns 62, Cebu 60: Cairns leads by 2 points.
Food & drink. Cairns 40, Cebu 58: Cebu leads by 18 points.
Culture & sights. Cairns 22, Cebu 40: Cebu leads by 18 points.
Nightlife. Cairns 42, Cebu 46: Cebu leads by 4 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cairns 95, Cebu 60: Cairns leads by 35 points.
Day trips. Cairns 45, Cebu 44: Cairns leads by 1 points.
Good for families. Cairns 66, Cebu 45: Cairns leads by 21 points.
Getting around. Cairns 45, Cebu 26: Cairns leads by 19 points.
Shopping & style. Cairns 28, Cebu 44: Cebu leads by 16 points.
Affordability. Cairns 35, Cebu 80: Cebu leads by 45 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cairns 22, Cebu 25: Cebu leads by 3 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cairns 45, Cebu 50: Cebu leads by 5 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Cairns
46match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and families with your weighting.

Cebu
48match

Wins on prices and food and drink with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Cairns in July

24 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
30 mmrain in the month
24 °Csea
11 hdaylight a day

Cebu in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
205 mmrain in the month
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0200400600JFMAMJJASOND
CairnsCebu

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. Cairns: 1993-2010 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Green Island Aws (27 km from centre). Cebu: 1991-2020 normals, Mactan (7.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCairnsCebu
Official languageEnglishEnglish, Filipino, Taglish
CurrencyAustralian Dollar (AUD)Philippine Peso (PHP)
SocketsI230 V, 50 HzABC220 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+10UTC+8
Emergency number000911
Elevation7 m135 m
Main airportCairns International Airport (CNS)6 km from centre32 non-stop destinationsMactan Cebu International Airport (CEB)9 km from centre41 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days18 days

By the numbers

MeasureCairnsCebu
City population146,778965,332
People per km²3013,065
Museums within 10 km15
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Cairns or Cebu 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.