VacationSelector
The Esplanade boardwalk and its palms, Cairns
CairnsThe Esplanade boardwalk and its palms
La Paz

Photos: Cairns by Donaldytong, Public domain.

Cairns or La Paz?

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
  • families
  • wellness

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

Choose La Paz for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on La Paz’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, La Paz 3: Cairns leads by 59 points.
Food & drink. Cairns 40, La Paz 50: La Paz leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. Cairns 22, La Paz 52: La Paz leads by 30 points.
Nightlife. Cairns 42, La Paz 38: Cairns leads by 4 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cairns 95, La Paz 82: Cairns leads by 13 points.
Day trips. Cairns 45, La Paz 40: Cairns leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Cairns 66, La Paz 10: Cairns leads by 56 points.
Getting around. Cairns and La Paz are level on 45.
Shopping & style. Cairns 28, La Paz 45: La Paz leads by 17 points.
Affordability. Cairns 35, La Paz 92: La Paz leads by 57 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cairns 22, La Paz 35: La Paz leads by 13 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cairns 45, La Paz 12: Cairns leads by 33 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cairns and La Paz.

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 families with your weighting.

La Paz
42match

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
24 °Csea
11 hdaylight a day

La Paz in July

13 °Cdaytime high
-2 °Cnight-time low
16 mmrain in the month
No seasea
11 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0200400600JFMAMJJASOND
CairnsLa Paz

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.

La Paz has no weather station within reach, so its figures come from a gridded climate model rather than a measured record, and read a broad area rather than the city itself.

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). La Paz: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureCairnsLa Paz
Official languageEnglishSpanish, Aymara, Quechua, Guarani
CurrencyAustralian Dollar (AUD)Boliviano (BOB)
SocketsI230 V, 50 HzAC50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+10UTC-4
Emergency number000911
Elevation7 m3,640 m
Main airportCairns International Airport (CNS)6 km from centre32 non-stop destinationsEl Alto International Airport (LPB)6 km from centre12 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureCairnsLa Paz
City population146,778755,732
People per km²3011,601
Museums within 10 km121
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
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 La Paz 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. Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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.