VacationSelector
The Esplanade boardwalk and its palms, Cairns
CairnsThe Esplanade boardwalk and its palms
Painted colonial houses in the Pelourinho, Salvador
SalvadorPainted colonial houses in the Pelourinho

Photos: Cairns by Donaldytong, Public domain; Salvador by Paul R. Burley, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Cairns or Salvador?

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
  • wellness

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

Choose Salvador for

  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Salvador’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, Salvador 84: Salvador leads by 22 points.
Food & drink. Cairns 40, Salvador 66: Salvador leads by 26 points.
Culture & sights. Cairns 22, Salvador 74: Salvador leads by 52 points.
Nightlife. Cairns 42, Salvador 70: Salvador leads by 28 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cairns 95, Salvador 52: Cairns leads by 43 points.
Day trips. Cairns 45, Salvador 56: Salvador leads by 11 points.
Good for families. Cairns 66, Salvador 42: Cairns leads by 24 points.
Getting around. Cairns 45, Salvador 42: Cairns leads by 3 points.
Shopping & style. Cairns 28, Salvador 42: Salvador leads by 14 points.
Affordability. Cairns 35, Salvador 70: Salvador leads by 35 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cairns 22, Salvador 63: Salvador leads by 41 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cairns 45, Salvador 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 Salvador.

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.

Salvador
Best match
58match

Wins on culture and sights 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

Salvador in July

27 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
201 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
26 °Csea
11 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0200400600JFMAMJJASOND
CairnsSalvador

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). Salvador: 1991-2020 normals, Salvador (4.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCairnsSalvador
Official languageEnglishPortuguese
CurrencyAustralian Dollar (AUD)Brazilian Real (BRL)
SocketsI230 V, 50 HzCN60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+10UTC-3
Emergency number000Police 190, ambulance 192, fire 193
Elevation7 m8 m
Main airportCairns International Airport (CNS)6 km from centre32 non-stop destinationsDeputado Luiz Eduardo Magalhães International Airport (SSA)20 km from centre31 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureCairnsSalvador
City population146,7782,417,678
People per km²3013,489
Museums within 10 km149
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
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 Salvador 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.