VacationSelector
The Esplanade boardwalk and its palms, Cairns
CairnsThe Esplanade boardwalk and its palms
The Outback, with the Tenmile Range in the distance, Keystone
KeystoneThe Outback, with the Tenmile Range in the distance

Photos: Cairns by Donaldytong, Public domain; Keystone by Rudi Riet, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Cairns or Keystone?

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

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • prices

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

Choose Keystone for

  • day trips
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Keystone’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, Keystone 5: Cairns leads by 57 points.
Food & drink. Cairns 40, Keystone 27: Cairns leads by 13 points.
Culture & sights. Cairns 22, Keystone 7: Cairns leads by 15 points.
Nightlife. Cairns 42, Keystone 12: Cairns leads by 30 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cairns 95, Keystone 93: Cairns leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Cairns 45, Keystone 55: Keystone leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Cairns and Keystone are level on 66.
Getting around. Cairns 45, Keystone 50: Keystone leads by 5 points.
Shopping & style. Cairns 28, Keystone 22: Cairns leads by 6 points.
Affordability. Cairns 35, Keystone 12: Cairns leads by 23 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cairns and Keystone are level on 22.
Wellness & relaxation. Cairns 45, Keystone 32: Cairns leads by 13 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cairns and Keystone.

Your match

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

Cairns
Best match
46match

Wins on beaches and nightlife with your weighting.

Keystone
34match

Wins on day trips and getting around 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

Keystone in July

21 °Cdaytime high
5 °Cnight-time low
39 mmrain in the month
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0200400600JFMAMJJASOND
CairnsKeystone

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.

Keystone's temperatures are measured 51 km from the centre, at Leadville / Stringtown.

Keystone's station stands 232 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer than the figures say.

Keystone 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). Keystone: 2006-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Leadville / Stringtown (50.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCairnsKeystone
Official languageEnglish-
CurrencyAustralian Dollar (AUD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsI230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+10UTC-7, UTC-6 in summer
Emergency number000911
Elevation7 m2,796 m
Main airportCairns International Airport (CNS)6 km from centre32 non-stop destinationsDenver International Airport (DEN)116 km from centre231 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureCairnsKeystone
City population146,7781,369
People per km²30113
Museums within 10 km10
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Cairns or Keystone 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.