VacationSelector
The Esplanade boardwalk and its palms, Cairns
CairnsThe Esplanade boardwalk and its palms
The harbour seen from above, Marmaris
MarmarisThe harbour seen from above

Photos: Cairns by Donaldytong, Public domain; Marmaris by Mstyslav Chernov, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Cairns or Marmaris?

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
  • live music and the arts
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Marmaris for

  • prices
  • day trips
  • beaches

What lies behind each score is written up on Marmaris’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, Marmaris 80: Marmaris leads by 18 points.
Food & drink. Cairns and Marmaris are level on 40.
Culture & sights. Cairns 22, Marmaris 18: Cairns leads by 4 points.
Nightlife. Cairns 42, Marmaris 60: Marmaris leads by 18 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cairns 95, Marmaris 72: Cairns leads by 23 points.
Day trips. Cairns 45, Marmaris 65: Marmaris leads by 20 points.
Good for families. Cairns 66, Marmaris 62: Cairns leads by 4 points.
Getting around. Cairns 45, Marmaris 55: Marmaris leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Cairns 28, Marmaris 38: Marmaris leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Cairns 35, Marmaris 62: Marmaris leads by 27 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cairns 22, Marmaris 12: Cairns leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cairns 45, Marmaris 50: Marmaris leads by 5 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cairns and Marmaris.

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 live music and the arts with your weighting.

Marmaris
Best match
51match

Wins on prices 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

Marmaris in July

32 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
8 mmrain in the month
25 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0200400600JFMAMJJASOND
CairnsMarmaris

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.

Marmaris's temperatures are measured 49 km from the centre, at Dalaman.

Marmaris 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). Marmaris: 2000-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Dalaman (48.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCairnsMarmaris
Official languageEnglishTurkish
CurrencyAustralian Dollar (AUD)Turkish Lira (TRY)
SocketsI230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+10UTC+3
Emergency number000112
Elevation7 m7 m
Main airportCairns International Airport (CNS)6 km from centre32 non-stop destinationsDalaman International Airport (DLM)49 km from centre61 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureCairnsMarmaris
City population146,77897,818
People per km²301111
Museums within 10 km11
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months6 months

Where else could you go?

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