Photos: Cairns by Donaldytong, Public domain; Queenstown by Robert Linsdell, CC BY 2.0, cropped.
Cairns or Queenstown?
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
- prices
- culture and sights
What lies behind each score is written up on Cairns’s own page.
Choose Queenstown for
- food and drink
- day trips
- nature and the outdoors
What lies behind each score is written up on Queenstown’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 Queenstown.
Your match
Pick a travel style or drag the sliders, and both match scores follow your weighting.
Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.
Wins on food and drink 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
Queenstown 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.
Queenstown has no weather station within reach, so its figures come from a gridded climate model rather than a measured record, and read a broad area rather than the city itself.
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). Queenstown: 1991-2020 normals, TerraClimate 4 km grid at the town, no weather station within 90 km.
Before you go
| Measure | Cairns | Queenstown |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | English | English, New Zealand Sign Language, Māori |
| Currency | Australian Dollar (AUD) | New Zealand Dollar (NZD) |
| Sockets | I230 V, 50 Hz | I230 V, 50 Hz |
| Driving side | Left | Left |
| Time zone | UTC+10 | UTC+12, UTC+13 in summer |
| Emergency number | 000 | 111 |
| Elevation | 7 m | 324 m |
| Main airport | Cairns International Airport (CNS)6 km from centre32 non-stop destinations | Queenstown Airport (ZQN)7 km from centre7 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 11 days | 12 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Cairns | Queenstown |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 146,778 | 29,000 |
| 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 | - |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Cairns or Queenstown somewhere new.