VacationSelector
The Esplanade boardwalk and its palms, Cairns
CairnsThe Esplanade boardwalk and its palms
The Japanese Covered Bridge, Hoi An
Hoi AnThe Japanese Covered Bridge

Photos: Cairns by Donaldytong, Public domain; Hoi An by François Guerraz, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Cairns or Hoi An?

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
  • nightlife
  • families

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

Choose Hoi An for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Hoi An’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, Hoi An 72: Hoi An leads by 10 points.
Food & drink. Cairns 40, Hoi An 68: Hoi An leads by 28 points.
Culture & sights. Cairns 22, Hoi An 66: Hoi An leads by 44 points.
Nightlife. Cairns 42, Hoi An 28: Cairns leads by 14 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cairns 95, Hoi An 63: Cairns leads by 32 points.
Day trips. Cairns 45, Hoi An 50: Hoi An leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Cairns 66, Hoi An 58: Cairns leads by 8 points.
Getting around. Cairns 45, Hoi An 48: Hoi An leads by 3 points.
Shopping & style. Cairns 28, Hoi An 57: Hoi An leads by 29 points.
Affordability. Cairns 35, Hoi An 88: Hoi An leads by 53 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cairns 22, Hoi An 24: Hoi An leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cairns 45, Hoi An 65: Hoi An leads by 20 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cairns and Hoi An.

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 nightlife with your weighting.

Hoi An
Best match
57match

Wins on prices and culture and sights 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

Hoi An 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
CairnsHoi An

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). Hoi An: 1991-2020 normals, Da Nang (23.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCairnsHoi An
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 m13 m
Main airportCairns International Airport (CNS)6 km from centre32 non-stop destinationsDa Nang International Airport (DAD)23 km from centre47 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days-

By the numbers

MeasureCairnsHoi An
City population146,778121,716
People per km²301-
Museums within 10 km15
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 Hoi An 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.