VacationSelector
The Esplanade boardwalk and its palms, Cairns
CairnsThe Esplanade boardwalk and its palms
The golden Dome of the Rock, Jerusalem
JerusalemThe golden Dome of the Rock

Photos: Cairns by Donaldytong, Public domain; Jerusalem by Yasir Gürbüz, Pexels License.

Cairns or Jerusalem?

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
  • prices

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

Choose Jerusalem for

  • culture and sights
  • day trips
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Jerusalem’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, Jerusalem 40: Cairns leads by 22 points.
Food & drink. Cairns 40, Jerusalem 66: Jerusalem leads by 26 points.
Culture & sights. Cairns 22, Jerusalem 92: Jerusalem leads by 70 points.
Nightlife. Cairns 42, Jerusalem 38: Cairns leads by 4 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cairns 95, Jerusalem 60: Cairns leads by 35 points.
Day trips. Cairns 45, Jerusalem 80: Jerusalem leads by 35 points.
Good for families. Cairns 66, Jerusalem 52: Cairns leads by 14 points.
Getting around. Cairns 45, Jerusalem 55: Jerusalem leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Cairns 28, Jerusalem 48: Jerusalem leads by 20 points.
Affordability. Cairns 35, Jerusalem 20: Cairns leads by 15 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cairns 22, Jerusalem 40: Jerusalem leads by 18 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cairns 45, Jerusalem 42: Cairns leads by 3 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cairns and Jerusalem.

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.

Jerusalem
Best match
53match

Wins on culture and sights 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
24 °Csea
11 hdaylight a day

Jerusalem in July

30 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
27 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0200400600JFMAMJJASOND
CairnsJerusalem

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.

Jerusalem 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). Jerusalem: 1991-2020 normals, Jerusalem (1.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCairnsJerusalem
Official languageEnglishHebrew
CurrencyAustralian Dollar (AUD)New Israeli Sheqel (ILS)
SocketsI230 V, 50 HzCHM230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+10UTC+2, UTC+3 in summer
Emergency number000Police 100, fire 102
Elevation7 m754 m
Main airportCairns International Airport (CNS)6 km from centre32 non-stop destinationsBen Gurion International Airport (TLV)42 km from centre111 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days-

By the numbers

MeasureCairnsJerusalem
City population146,7781,050,151
People per km²3018,374
Museums within 10 km169
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km17
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months7 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Cairns or Jerusalem 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.