VacationSelector
The Esplanade boardwalk and its palms, Cairns
CairnsThe Esplanade boardwalk and its palms
The Golden Bridge held up by stone hands, Da Nang
Da NangThe Golden Bridge held up by stone hands

Photos: Cairns by Donaldytong, Public domain; Da Nang by Nghia Tran, Pexels License.

Cairns or Da Nang?

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
  • getting around
  • families

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

Choose Da Nang for

  • prices
  • day trips
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Da Nang’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, Da Nang 80: Da Nang leads by 18 points.
Food & drink. Cairns 40, Da Nang 67: Da Nang leads by 27 points.
Culture & sights. Cairns 22, Da Nang 38: Da Nang leads by 16 points.
Nightlife. Cairns 42, Da Nang 44: Da Nang leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cairns 95, Da Nang 72: Cairns leads by 23 points.
Day trips. Cairns 45, Da Nang 80: Da Nang leads by 35 points.
Good for families. Cairns 66, Da Nang 62: Cairns leads by 4 points.
Getting around. Cairns 45, Da Nang 38: Cairns leads by 7 points.
Shopping & style. Cairns 28, Da Nang 40: Da Nang leads by 12 points.
Affordability. Cairns 35, Da Nang 90: Da Nang leads by 55 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cairns 22, Da Nang 20: Cairns leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cairns 45, Da Nang 64: Da Nang leads by 19 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cairns and Da Nang.

Your match

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

Cairns
46match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and getting around with your weighting.

Da Nang
Best match
58match

Wins on prices and day trips 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

Da Nang in July

35 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
83 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0200400600800JFMAMJJASOND
CairnsDa Nang

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). Da Nang: 1991-2020 normals, Da Nang (4.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCairnsDa Nang
Official languageEnglishVietnamese
CurrencyAustralian Dollar (AUD)Dong (VND)
SocketsI230 V, 50 HzACFG220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+10UTC+7
Emergency number000Police 113, ambulance 115, fire 114
Elevation7 m19 m
Main airportCairns International Airport (CNS)6 km from centre32 non-stop destinationsDa Nang International Airport (DAD)3 km from centre47 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days-

By the numbers

MeasureCairnsDa Nang
City population146,7782,819,900
People per km²301238
Museums within 10 km12
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km12
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 Da Nang 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.