VacationSelector
The Esplanade boardwalk and its palms, Cairns
CairnsThe Esplanade boardwalk and its palms
Camelback Mountain above the city, Scottsdale
ScottsdaleCamelback Mountain above the city

Photos: Cairns by Donaldytong, Public domain; Scottsdale by Visitor7, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Cairns or Scottsdale?

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
  • nature and the outdoors
  • getting around

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

Choose Scottsdale for

  • shopping
  • wellness
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Scottsdale’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, Scottsdale 8: Cairns leads by 54 points.
Food & drink. Cairns 40, Scottsdale 46: Scottsdale leads by 6 points.
Culture & sights. Cairns 22, Scottsdale 38: Scottsdale leads by 16 points.
Nightlife. Cairns 42, Scottsdale 52: Scottsdale leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cairns 95, Scottsdale 68: Cairns leads by 27 points.
Day trips. Cairns 45, Scottsdale 50: Scottsdale leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Cairns 66, Scottsdale 60: Cairns leads by 6 points.
Getting around. Cairns 45, Scottsdale 20: Cairns leads by 25 points.
Shopping & style. Cairns 28, Scottsdale 60: Scottsdale leads by 32 points.
Affordability. Cairns 35, Scottsdale 32: Cairns leads by 3 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cairns 22, Scottsdale 40: Scottsdale leads by 18 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cairns 45, Scottsdale 72: Scottsdale leads by 27 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cairns and Scottsdale.

Your match

Pick a travel style or drag the sliders, and both match scores follow your weighting.

Too close to call, level with your weighting

Cairns
46match

Wins on beaches and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Scottsdale
46match

Wins on shopping and wellness 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

Scottsdale in July

41 °Cdaytime high
29 °Cnight-time low
23 mmrain in the month
No seasea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°50°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0200400600JFMAMJJASOND
CairnsScottsdale

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). Scottsdale: 1991-2020 normals, Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport (13.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCairnsScottsdale
Official languageEnglish-
CurrencyAustralian Dollar (AUD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsI230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+10UTC-7
Emergency number000911
Elevation7 m380 m
Main airportCairns International Airport (CNS)6 km from centre32 non-stop destinationsPhoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX)10 km from centre148 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureCairnsScottsdale
City population146,778241,361
People per km²301-
Museums within 10 km110
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Cairns or Scottsdale 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.