VacationSelector
The Esplanade boardwalk and its palms, Cairns
CairnsThe Esplanade boardwalk and its palms
A classic car in front of the Capitolio, Havana
HavanaA classic car in front of the Capitolio

Photos: Cairns by Donaldytong, Public domain; Havana by AXP Photography, Pexels License.

Cairns or Havana?

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
  • wellness

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

Choose Havana for

  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Havana’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, Havana 64: Havana leads by 2 points.
Food & drink. Cairns and Havana are level on 40.
Culture & sights. Cairns 22, Havana 77: Havana leads by 55 points.
Nightlife. Cairns 42, Havana 60: Havana leads by 18 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cairns 95, Havana 34: Cairns leads by 61 points.
Day trips. Cairns 45, Havana 38: Cairns leads by 7 points.
Good for families. Cairns 66, Havana 34: Cairns leads by 32 points.
Getting around. Cairns 45, Havana 38: Cairns leads by 7 points.
Shopping & style. Cairns 28, Havana 30: Havana leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Cairns 35, Havana 58: Havana leads by 23 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cairns 22, Havana 74: Havana leads by 52 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cairns 45, Havana 22: Cairns leads by 23 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cairns and Havana.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Cairns
46match

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

Havana
47match

Wins on culture and sights and live music and the arts 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

Havana in July

32 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
118 mmrain in the month
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0200400600JFMAMJJASOND
CairnsHavana

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.

Havana 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). Havana: 1991-2020 normals, Casa Blanca, La Habana (3.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCairnsHavana
Official languageEnglishSpanish
CurrencyAustralian Dollar (AUD)Cuban Peso (CUP)
SocketsI230 V, 50 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+10UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number000Police 106, ambulance 104, fire 105
Elevation7 m59 m
Main airportCairns International Airport (CNS)6 km from centre32 non-stop destinationsJosé Martí International Airport (HAV)17 km from centre21 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureCairnsHavana
City population146,7782,492,618
People per km²3013,423
Museums within 10 km112
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
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 Havana 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.