VacationSelector
The Esplanade boardwalk and its palms, Cairns
CairnsThe Esplanade boardwalk and its palms
The Nairobi skyline with the KICC tower, Nairobi
NairobiThe Nairobi skyline with the KICC tower

Photos: Cairns by Donaldytong, Public domain; Nairobi by Lmwangi, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Cairns or Nairobi?

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
  • getting around
  • wellness

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

Choose Nairobi for

  • prices
  • shopping
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Nairobi’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, Nairobi 4: Cairns leads by 58 points.
Food & drink. Cairns 40, Nairobi 48: Nairobi leads by 8 points.
Culture & sights. Cairns 22, Nairobi 35: Nairobi leads by 13 points.
Nightlife. Cairns 42, Nairobi 58: Nairobi leads by 16 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cairns 95, Nairobi 84: Cairns leads by 11 points.
Day trips. Cairns 45, Nairobi 28: Cairns leads by 17 points.
Good for families. Cairns 66, Nairobi 55: Cairns leads by 11 points.
Getting around. Cairns 45, Nairobi 20: Cairns leads by 25 points.
Shopping & style. Cairns 28, Nairobi 45: Nairobi leads by 17 points.
Affordability. Cairns 35, Nairobi 60: Nairobi leads by 25 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cairns 22, Nairobi 35: Nairobi leads by 13 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cairns 45, Nairobi 25: Cairns leads by 20 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cairns and Nairobi.

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 getting around with your weighting.

Nairobi
41match

Wins on prices and shopping 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

Nairobi in July

24 °Cdaytime high
12 °Cnight-time low
11 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
No seasea
12 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0200400600JFMAMJJASOND
CairnsNairobi

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). Nairobi: 1991-2020 normals, Nairobi ACC/FIC/RCC/MET/COM/ (13.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCairnsNairobi
Official languageEnglishEnglish, Swahili
CurrencyAustralian Dollar (AUD)Kenyan Shilling (KES)
SocketsI230 V, 50 HzG240 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+10UTC+3
Emergency number000Police 112/999, ambulance 112/999, fire 112/999
Elevation7 m1,661 m
Main airportCairns International Airport (CNS)6 km from centre32 non-stop destinationsJomo Kenyatta International Airport (NBO)13 km from centre60 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days10 days

By the numbers

MeasureCairnsNairobi
City population146,7785,545,000
People per km²3017,967
Museums within 10 km14
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
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 Nairobi 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.