Photos: Cairns by Donaldytong, Public domain; Montego Bay by Dre Dawkcide, Pexels License.
Cairns or Montego Bay?
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
- getting around
- families
What lies behind each score is written up on Cairns’s own page.
Choose Montego Bay for
- beaches
- food and drink
- live music and the arts
What lies behind each score is written up on Montego Bay’s own page.
Scoreboard
Twelve categories on one fixed scale from 0 to 100. The shaded stretch is the gap between the two.
What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cairns and Montego Bay.
Your match
Pick a travel style or drag the sliders, and both match scores follow your weighting.
Too close to call, 2 points apart
Wins on nature and the outdoors and getting around with your weighting.
Wins on beaches and food and drink 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
Montego Bay in July
Daytime high, °C
Rainfall in the month, mm
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). Montego Bay: 1991-2020 normals, Montego Bay / Sangster (3.7 km from centre).
Before you go
| Measure | Cairns | Montego Bay |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | English | English, Jamaican Patois |
| Currency | Australian Dollar (AUD) | Jamaican Dollar (JMD) |
| Sockets | I230 V, 50 Hz | AB116 V, 50 Hz |
| Driving side | Left | Left |
| Time zone | UTC+10 | UTC-5 |
| Emergency number | 000 | Police 110/112/119/911, ambulance 110, fire 110 |
| Elevation | 7 m | 19 m |
| Main airport | Cairns International Airport (CNS)6 km from centre32 non-stop destinations | Sangster International Airport (MBJ)4 km from centre48 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 11 days | 10 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Cairns | Montego Bay |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 146,778 | 123,994 |
| People per km² | 301 | - |
| Museums within 10 km | 1 | 0 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 1 | 0 |
| Swim season, months above 21 °C | 12 months | 12 months |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Cairns or Montego Bay somewhere new.