VacationSelector
The Esplanade boardwalk and its palms, Cairns
CairnsThe Esplanade boardwalk and its palms
The Sanctuary of Truth by the sea, Pattaya
PattayaThe Sanctuary of Truth by the sea

Photos: Cairns by Donaldytong, Public domain; Pattaya by Matrix, Pexels License.

Cairns or Pattaya?

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
  • families
  • getting around

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

Choose Pattaya for

  • prices
  • nightlife
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Pattaya’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, Pattaya 66: Pattaya leads by 4 points.
Food & drink. Cairns 40, Pattaya 58: Pattaya leads by 18 points.
Culture & sights. Cairns 22, Pattaya 30: Pattaya leads by 8 points.
Nightlife. Cairns 42, Pattaya 76: Pattaya leads by 34 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cairns 95, Pattaya 40: Cairns leads by 55 points.
Day trips. Cairns 45, Pattaya 52: Pattaya leads by 7 points.
Good for families. Cairns 66, Pattaya 55: Cairns leads by 11 points.
Getting around. Cairns 45, Pattaya 36: Cairns leads by 9 points.
Shopping & style. Cairns 28, Pattaya 42: Pattaya leads by 14 points.
Affordability. Cairns 35, Pattaya 84: Pattaya leads by 49 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cairns 22, Pattaya 30: Pattaya leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cairns 45, Pattaya 58: Pattaya leads by 13 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cairns and Pattaya.

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 families with your weighting.

Pattaya
Best match
52match

Wins on prices and nightlife 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

Pattaya in July

32 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
102 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
30 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0200400600JFMAMJJASOND
CairnsPattaya

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.

Pattaya's temperatures are measured 31 km from the centre, at Sattahip.

Pattaya 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.

Pattaya's sunshine is measured 86 km from the centre, at Bangna Agromet / Ban Khlong Samrong.

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). Pattaya: 1971-2000 (sunshine 1961-1990, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Sattahip (31.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCairnsPattaya
Official languageEnglishThai
CurrencyAustralian Dollar (AUD)Baht (THB)
SocketsI230 V, 50 HzABCF220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+10UTC+7
Emergency number000Police 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199
Elevation7 m35 m
Main airportCairns International Airport (CNS)6 km from centre32 non-stop destinationsSuvarnabhumi Airport (BKK)83 km from centre150 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days-

By the numbers

MeasureCairnsPattaya
City population146,778119,532
People per km²301-
Museums within 10 km10
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Cairns or Pattaya 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. Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national sources. 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.