VacationSelector
The Esplanade boardwalk and its palms, Cairns
CairnsThe Esplanade boardwalk and its palms
The city from Hallgrímskirkja, Reykjavik
ReykjavikThe city from Hallgrímskirkja

Photos: Cairns by Donaldytong, Public domain; Reykjavik by Atlantic Ambience, Pexels License.

Cairns or Reykjavik?

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
  • families

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

Choose Reykjavik for

  • wellness
  • live music and the arts
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Reykjavik’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, Reykjavik 12: Cairns leads by 50 points.
Food & drink. Cairns 40, Reykjavik 42: Reykjavik leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Cairns 22, Reykjavik 25: Reykjavik leads by 3 points.
Nightlife. Cairns 42, Reykjavik 45: Reykjavik leads by 3 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cairns 95, Reykjavik 92: Cairns leads by 3 points.
Day trips. Cairns 45, Reykjavik 35: Cairns leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Cairns 66, Reykjavik 55: Cairns leads by 11 points.
Getting around. Cairns 45, Reykjavik 55: Reykjavik leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Cairns 28, Reykjavik 25: Cairns leads by 3 points.
Affordability. Cairns 35, Reykjavik 6: Cairns leads by 29 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cairns 22, Reykjavik 45: Reykjavik leads by 23 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cairns 45, Reykjavik 88: Reykjavik leads by 43 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cairns and Reykjavik.

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 beaches and prices with your weighting.

Reykjavik
44match

Wins on wellness and live music and the arts 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

Reykjavik in July

15 °Cdaytime high
9 °Cnight-time low
50 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
11 °Csea
20 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0200400600JFMAMJJASOND
CairnsReykjavik

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). Reykjavik: 1991-2020 normals, Reykjavik (2.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCairnsReykjavik
Official languageEnglishIcelandic
CurrencyAustralian Dollar (AUD)Iceland Krona (ISK)
SocketsI230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+10UTC
Emergency number000112
Elevation7 m8 m
Main airportCairns International Airport (CNS)6 km from centre32 non-stop destinationsKeflavik International Airport (KEF)37 km from centre88 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureCairnsReykjavik
City population146,778138,772
People per km²301569
Museums within 10 km123
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Cairns or Reykjavik 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. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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.