VacationSelector
The Esplanade boardwalk and its palms, Cairns
CairnsThe Esplanade boardwalk and its palms
Fishing boats in the harbour, La Spezia
La SpeziaFishing boats in the harbour

Photos: Cairns by Donaldytong, Public domain; La Spezia by Irina Balashova, Pexels License.

Cairns or La Spezia?

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

  • families
  • nature and the outdoors
  • nightlife

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

Choose La Spezia for

  • day trips
  • getting around
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on La Spezia’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 Spezia 60: Cairns leads by 2 points.
Food & drink. Cairns 40, La Spezia 58: La Spezia leads by 18 points.
Culture & sights. Cairns 22, La Spezia 40: La Spezia leads by 18 points.
Nightlife. Cairns 42, La Spezia 28: Cairns leads by 14 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cairns 95, La Spezia 79: Cairns leads by 16 points.
Day trips. Cairns 45, La Spezia 87: La Spezia leads by 42 points.
Good for families. Cairns 66, La Spezia 48: Cairns leads by 18 points.
Getting around. Cairns 45, La Spezia 70: La Spezia leads by 25 points.
Shopping & style. Cairns 28, La Spezia 35: La Spezia leads by 7 points.
Affordability. Cairns 35, La Spezia 50: La Spezia leads by 15 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cairns 22, La Spezia 28: La Spezia leads by 6 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cairns 45, La Spezia 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 La Spezia.

Your match

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

Cairns
46match

Wins on families and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

La Spezia
Best match
51match

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
No recordsunshine a day
24 °Csea
11 hdaylight a day

La Spezia in July

30 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
20 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
24 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0200400600JFMAMJJASOND
CairnsLa Spezia

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 Spezia's temperatures are measured 65 km from the centre, at Pisa / S. Giusto.

La Spezia 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). La Spezia: 1991-2020 normals, Pisa / S. Giusto (64.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCairnsLa Spezia
Official languageEnglishItalian
CurrencyAustralian Dollar (AUD)Euro (EUR)
SocketsI230 V, 50 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+10UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number000112
Elevation7 m3 m
Main airportCairns International Airport (CNS)6 km from centre32 non-stop destinationsPisa International Airport (PSA)65 km from centre82 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureCairnsLa Spezia
City population146,77892,119
People per km²3011,792
Museums within 10 km112
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km12
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months4 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Cairns or La Spezia 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. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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.