VacationSelector
The Esplanade boardwalk and its palms, Cairns
CairnsThe Esplanade boardwalk and its palms
The Istiqlal Mosque, Jakarta
JakartaThe Istiqlal Mosque

Photos: Cairns by Donaldytong, Public domain; Jakarta by Antonyus Bunjamin, Pexels License.

Cairns or Jakarta?

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
  • beaches
  • families

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

Choose Jakarta for

  • prices
  • food and drink
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Jakarta’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, Jakarta 28: Cairns leads by 34 points.
Food & drink. Cairns 40, Jakarta 78: Jakarta leads by 38 points.
Culture & sights. Cairns 22, Jakarta 48: Jakarta leads by 26 points.
Nightlife. Cairns 42, Jakarta 66: Jakarta leads by 24 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cairns 95, Jakarta 30: Cairns leads by 65 points.
Day trips. Cairns and Jakarta are level on 45.
Good for families. Cairns 66, Jakarta 50: Cairns leads by 16 points.
Getting around. Cairns 45, Jakarta 36: Cairns leads by 9 points.
Shopping & style. Cairns 28, Jakarta 64: Jakarta leads by 36 points.
Affordability. Cairns 35, Jakarta 80: Jakarta leads by 45 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cairns 22, Jakarta 42: Jakarta leads by 20 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cairns 45, Jakarta 46: Jakarta leads by 1 points.
0255075100

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

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 beaches with your weighting.

Jakarta
Best match
51match

Wins on prices and food and drink 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

Jakarta in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
85 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
29 °Csea
12 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0200400600JFMAMJJASOND
CairnsJakarta

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). Jakarta: 1991-2020 normals, Jakarta / Observatory (1.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCairnsJakarta
Official languageEnglishIndonesian
CurrencyAustralian Dollar (AUD)Rupiah (IDR)
SocketsI230 V, 50 HzCF50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+10UTC+7
Emergency number000112
Elevation7 m91 m
Main airportCairns International Airport (CNS)6 km from centre32 non-stop destinationsSoekarno-Hatta International Airport (CGK)20 km from centre89 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days-

By the numbers

MeasureCairnsJakarta
City population146,77811,135,191
People per km²30116,821
Museums within 10 km144
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 Jakarta 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.