VacationSelector
The Esplanade boardwalk and its palms, Cairns
CairnsThe Esplanade boardwalk and its palms
A jetty on the lagoon, Faro
FaroA jetty on the lagoon

Photos: Cairns by Donaldytong, Public domain; Faro by Efrem Efre, Pexels License.

Cairns or Faro?

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
  • wellness
  • nightlife

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

Choose Faro for

  • prices
  • day trips
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Faro’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, Faro 74: Faro leads by 12 points.
Food & drink. Cairns 40, Faro 48: Faro leads by 8 points.
Culture & sights. Cairns 22, Faro 35: Faro leads by 13 points.
Nightlife. Cairns 42, Faro 32: Cairns leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cairns 95, Faro 62: Cairns leads by 33 points.
Day trips. Cairns 45, Faro 64: Faro leads by 19 points.
Good for families. Cairns 66, Faro 60: Cairns leads by 6 points.
Getting around. Cairns 45, Faro 60: Faro leads by 15 points.
Shopping & style. Cairns 28, Faro 35: Faro leads by 7 points.
Affordability. Cairns 35, Faro 60: Faro leads by 25 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cairns 22, Faro 30: Faro leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cairns 45, Faro 33: Cairns leads by 12 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cairns and Faro.

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 wellness with your weighting.

Faro
Best match
49match

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

Faro in July

29 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
21 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0200400600JFMAMJJASOND
CairnsFaro

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). Faro: 1991-2020 normals, Faro / Aeroporto (2.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCairnsFaro
Official languageEnglishPortuguese
CurrencyAustralian Dollar (AUD)Euro (EUR)
SocketsI230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+10UTC, UTC+1 in summer
Emergency number000112
Elevation7 m10 m
Main airportCairns International Airport (CNS)6 km from centre32 non-stop destinationsFaro - Gago Coutinho International Airport (FAO)3 km from centre91 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureCairnsFaro
City population146,77864,560
People per km²301319
Museums within 10 km12
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months3 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Cairns or Faro 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. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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.