VacationSelector
The Esplanade boardwalk and its palms, Cairns
CairnsThe Esplanade boardwalk and its palms
Wat Xieng Thong temple, Luang Prabang
Luang PrabangWat Xieng Thong temple

Photos: Cairns by Donaldytong, Public domain; Luang Prabang by Basile Morin, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Cairns or Luang Prabang?

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
  • families

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

Choose Luang Prabang for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Luang Prabang’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, Luang Prabang 14: Cairns leads by 48 points.
Food & drink. Cairns 40, Luang Prabang 42: Luang Prabang leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Cairns 22, Luang Prabang 65: Luang Prabang leads by 43 points.
Nightlife. Cairns 42, Luang Prabang 8: Cairns leads by 34 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cairns 95, Luang Prabang 68: Cairns leads by 27 points.
Day trips. Cairns 45, Luang Prabang 35: Cairns leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Cairns 66, Luang Prabang 38: Cairns leads by 28 points.
Getting around. Cairns 45, Luang Prabang 50: Luang Prabang leads by 5 points.
Shopping & style. Cairns 28, Luang Prabang 38: Luang Prabang leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Cairns 35, Luang Prabang 80: Luang Prabang leads by 45 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cairns 22, Luang Prabang 18: Cairns leads by 4 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cairns 45, Luang Prabang 60: Luang Prabang leads by 15 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cairns and Luang Prabang.

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.

Luang Prabang
43match

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
No recordsunshine a day
24 °Csea
11 hdaylight a day

Luang Prabang in July

33 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
250 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
No seasea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0200400600JFMAMJJASOND
CairnsLuang Prabang

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). Luang Prabang: 1991-2020 normals, Luang-Prabang (0.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCairnsLuang Prabang
Official languageEnglishLao
CurrencyAustralian Dollar (AUD)Lao Kip (LAK)
SocketsI230 V, 50 HzABCEF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+10UTC+7
Emergency number000Police 191, ambulance 195, fire 190
Elevation7 m305 m
Main airportCairns International Airport (CNS)6 km from centre32 non-stop destinationsLuang Phabang International Airport (LPQ)4 km from centre7 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days-

By the numbers

MeasureCairnsLuang Prabang
City population146,77853,792
People per km²301-
Museums within 10 km10
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 Luang Prabang 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.