Photos: Cairns by Donaldytong, Public domain; Cusco by Pedro Szekely, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.
Cairns or Cusco?
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
- beaches
- families
- wellness
What lies behind each score is written up on Cairns’s own page.
Choose Cusco for
- culture and sights
- prices
- day trips
What lies behind each score is written up on Cusco’s own page.
Scoreboard
Twelve categories on one fixed scale from 0 to 100. The shaded stretch is the gap between the two.
What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cairns and Cusco.
Your match
Pick a travel style or drag the sliders, and both match scores follow your weighting.
Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.
Wins on culture and sights and prices 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
Cusco in July
Daytime high, °C
Rainfall in the month, mm
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.
Cusco's station stands 151 m below the city centre, so the centre is likely a little cooler than the figures say.
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). Cusco: 1991-2020 normals, Cuzco (3.7 km from centre).
Before you go
| Measure | Cairns | Cusco |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | English | Spanish, Aymara, Quechua |
| Currency | Australian Dollar (AUD) | Sol (PEN) |
| Sockets | I230 V, 50 Hz | ABC220 V, 60 Hz |
| Driving side | Left | Right |
| Time zone | UTC+10 | UTC-5 |
| Emergency number | 000 | 111 or 911 |
| Elevation | 7 m | 3,399 m |
| Main airport | Cairns International Airport (CNS)6 km from centre32 non-stop destinations | Alejandro Velasco Astete International Airport (CUZ)5 km from centre6 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 11 days | 16 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Cairns | Cusco |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 146,778 | 428,450 |
| People per km² | 301 | - |
| Museums within 10 km | 1 | 11 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 1 | 2 |
| Swim season, months above 21 °C | 12 months | - |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Cairns or Cusco somewhere new.