VacationSelector
The Esplanade boardwalk and its palms, Cairns
CairnsThe Esplanade boardwalk and its palms
Beira Lake with Seema Malaka and the Lotus Tower, Colombo
ColomboBeira Lake with Seema Malaka and the Lotus Tower

Photos: Cairns by Donaldytong, Public domain; Colombo by Mohamed Ansaf, Pexels License.

Cairns or Colombo?

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 Colombo for

  • prices
  • food and drink
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Colombo’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, Colombo 55: Cairns leads by 7 points.
Food & drink. Cairns 40, Colombo 66: Colombo leads by 26 points.
Culture & sights. Cairns 22, Colombo 45: Colombo leads by 23 points.
Nightlife. Cairns 42, Colombo 35: Cairns leads by 7 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cairns 95, Colombo 32: Cairns leads by 63 points.
Day trips. Cairns 45, Colombo 50: Colombo leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Cairns 66, Colombo 35: Cairns leads by 31 points.
Getting around. Cairns 45, Colombo 35: Cairns leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Cairns 28, Colombo 45: Colombo leads by 17 points.
Affordability. Cairns 35, Colombo 78: Colombo leads by 43 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cairns 22, Colombo 30: Colombo leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cairns 45, Colombo 48: Colombo leads by 3 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cairns and Colombo.

Your match

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

Too close to call, level with your weighting

Cairns
46match

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

Colombo
46match

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
No recordsunshine a day
24 °Csea
11 hdaylight a day

Colombo in July

30 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
128 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
28 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0200400600JFMAMJJASOND
CairnsColombo

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). Colombo: 1991-2020 normals, Colombo (3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCairnsColombo
Official languageEnglishTamil, Sinhala
CurrencyAustralian Dollar (AUD)Sri Lanka Rupee (LKR)
SocketsI230 V, 50 HzGM230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+10UTC+5:30
Emergency number000Police 119, ambulance 110, fire 110
Elevation7 m1 m
Main airportCairns International Airport (CNS)6 km from centre32 non-stop destinationsBandaranaike International Colombo Airport (CMB)28 km from centre56 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days-

By the numbers

MeasureCairnsColombo
City population146,778647,557
People per km²30117,361
Museums within 10 km110
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 Colombo 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.