VacationSelector
The Esplanade boardwalk and its palms, Cairns
CairnsThe Esplanade boardwalk and its palms
The skyline and yachts on the canals, Fort Lauderdale
Fort LauderdaleThe skyline and yachts on the canals

Photos: Cairns by Donaldytong, Public domain; Fort Lauderdale by KeanoManu, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Cairns or Fort Lauderdale?

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
  • wellness

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

Choose Fort Lauderdale for

  • beaches
  • shopping
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Fort Lauderdale’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, Fort Lauderdale 88: Fort Lauderdale leads by 26 points.
Food & drink. Cairns 40, Fort Lauderdale 47: Fort Lauderdale leads by 7 points.
Culture & sights. Cairns 22, Fort Lauderdale 28: Fort Lauderdale leads by 6 points.
Nightlife. Cairns 42, Fort Lauderdale 52: Fort Lauderdale leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cairns 95, Fort Lauderdale 62: Cairns leads by 33 points.
Day trips. Cairns 45, Fort Lauderdale 58: Fort Lauderdale leads by 13 points.
Good for families. Cairns and Fort Lauderdale are level on 66.
Getting around. Cairns 45, Fort Lauderdale 32: Cairns leads by 13 points.
Shopping & style. Cairns 28, Fort Lauderdale 52: Fort Lauderdale leads by 24 points.
Affordability. Cairns 35, Fort Lauderdale 32: Cairns leads by 3 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cairns 22, Fort Lauderdale 42: Fort Lauderdale leads by 20 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cairns 45, Fort Lauderdale 40: Cairns leads by 5 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cairns and Fort Lauderdale.

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.

Fort Lauderdale
Best match
50match

Wins on beaches and shopping 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

Fort Lauderdale in July

32 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
166 mmrain in the month
29 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0200400600JFMAMJJASOND
CairnsFort Lauderdale

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). Fort Lauderdale: 1991-2020 normals, Fort Lauderdale (7.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCairnsFort Lauderdale
Official languageEnglish-
CurrencyAustralian Dollar (AUD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsI230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+10UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number000911
Elevation7 m11 m
Main airportCairns International Airport (CNS)6 km from centre32 non-stop destinationsFort Lauderdale Hollywood International Airport (FLL)7 km from centre136 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureCairnsFort Lauderdale
City population146,778182,760
People per km²3011,829
Museums within 10 km16
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 Fort Lauderdale 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.