VacationSelector
The Esplanade boardwalk and its palms, Cairns
CairnsThe Esplanade boardwalk and its palms
Cinderella Castle, Magic Kingdom, Orlando
OrlandoCinderella Castle, Magic Kingdom

Photos: Cairns by Donaldytong, Public domain; Orlando by Michael Gray, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Cairns or Orlando?

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
  • beaches

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

Choose Orlando for

  • families
  • shopping
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Orlando’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, Orlando 42: Cairns leads by 20 points.
Food & drink. Cairns 40, Orlando 48: Orlando leads by 8 points.
Culture & sights. Cairns and Orlando are level on 22.
Nightlife. Cairns 42, Orlando 40: Cairns leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cairns 95, Orlando 46: Cairns leads by 49 points.
Day trips. Cairns 45, Orlando 58: Orlando leads by 13 points.
Good for families. Cairns 66, Orlando 98: Orlando leads by 32 points.
Getting around. Cairns 45, Orlando 8: Cairns leads by 37 points.
Shopping & style. Cairns 28, Orlando 58: Orlando leads by 30 points.
Affordability. Cairns 35, Orlando 36: Orlando leads by 1 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cairns 22, Orlando 40: Orlando leads by 18 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cairns 45, Orlando 32: Cairns leads by 13 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cairns and Orlando.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Cairns
46match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and getting around with your weighting.

Orlando
44match

Wins on families 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
24 °Csea
11 hdaylight a day

Orlando in July

33 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
189 mmrain in the month
No seasea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0200400600JFMAMJJASOND
CairnsOrlando

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). Orlando: 1991-2020 normals, Orlando Airport (14.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCairnsOrlando
Official languageEnglish-
CurrencyAustralian Dollar (AUD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsI230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+10UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number000911
Elevation7 m34 m
Main airportCairns International Airport (CNS)6 km from centre32 non-stop destinationsOrlando International Airport (MCO)14 km from centre169 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureCairnsOrlando
City population146,778334,854
People per km²3011,086
Museums within 10 km111
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 Orlando 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.