VacationSelector
The Esplanade boardwalk and its palms, Cairns
CairnsThe Esplanade boardwalk and its palms
The boardwalk at Delaware Avenue, Rehoboth Beach
Rehoboth BeachThe boardwalk at Delaware Avenue

Photos: Cairns by Donaldytong, Public domain; Rehoboth Beach by Dough4872, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Cairns or Rehoboth Beach?

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
  • wellness
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Rehoboth Beach for

  • shopping
  • beaches
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Rehoboth Beach’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, Rehoboth Beach 70: Rehoboth Beach leads by 8 points.
Food & drink. Cairns 40, Rehoboth Beach 44: Rehoboth Beach leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. Cairns 22, Rehoboth Beach 14: Cairns leads by 8 points.
Nightlife. Cairns 42, Rehoboth Beach 40: Cairns leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cairns 95, Rehoboth Beach 50: Cairns leads by 45 points.
Day trips. Cairns 45, Rehoboth Beach 50: Rehoboth Beach leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Cairns 66, Rehoboth Beach 70: Rehoboth Beach leads by 4 points.
Getting around. Cairns 45, Rehoboth Beach 50: Rehoboth Beach leads by 5 points.
Shopping & style. Cairns 28, Rehoboth Beach 45: Rehoboth Beach leads by 17 points.
Affordability. Cairns 35, Rehoboth Beach 32: Cairns leads by 3 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cairns 22, Rehoboth Beach 28: Rehoboth Beach leads by 6 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cairns 45, Rehoboth Beach 32: Cairns leads by 13 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cairns and Rehoboth Beach.

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 wellness with your weighting.

Rehoboth Beach
44match

Wins on shopping and beaches 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

Rehoboth Beach in July

31 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
92 mmrain in the month
23 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0200400600JFMAMJJASOND
CairnsRehoboth Beach

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.

Rehoboth Beach 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). Rehoboth Beach: 2006-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Georgetown / Rogers Development (24.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCairnsRehoboth Beach
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 m5 m
Main airportCairns International Airport (CNS)6 km from centre32 non-stop destinationsSalisbury Ocean City Wicomico Regional Airport (SBY)56 km from centre4 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureCairnsRehoboth Beach
City population146,7781,108
People per km²301258
Museums within 10 km12
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months3 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Cairns or Rehoboth Beach 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.