VacationSelector
The Esplanade boardwalk and its palms, Cairns
CairnsThe Esplanade boardwalk and its palms
Stortorget in Gamla stan, Stockholm
StockholmStortorget in Gamla stan

Photos: Cairns by Donaldytong, Public domain; Stockholm by Jorge Franganillo, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Cairns or Stockholm?

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
  • beaches
  • prices

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

Choose Stockholm for

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

What lies behind each score is written up on Stockholm’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, Stockholm 40: Cairns leads by 22 points.
Food & drink. Cairns 40, Stockholm 64: Stockholm leads by 24 points.
Culture & sights. Cairns 22, Stockholm 77: Stockholm leads by 55 points.
Nightlife. Cairns 42, Stockholm 57: Stockholm leads by 15 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cairns 95, Stockholm 72: Cairns leads by 23 points.
Day trips. Cairns 45, Stockholm 68: Stockholm leads by 23 points.
Good for families. Cairns 66, Stockholm 82: Stockholm leads by 16 points.
Getting around. Cairns 45, Stockholm 84: Stockholm leads by 39 points.
Shopping & style. Cairns 28, Stockholm 70: Stockholm leads by 42 points.
Affordability. Cairns 35, Stockholm 30: Cairns leads by 5 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cairns 22, Stockholm 65: Stockholm leads by 43 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cairns 45, Stockholm 56: Stockholm leads by 11 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cairns and Stockholm.

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 beaches with your weighting.

Stockholm
Best match
64match

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

Stockholm in July

23 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
65 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
16 °Csea
18 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0200400600JFMAMJJASOND
CairnsStockholm

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.

Stockholm 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.

Stockholm's sunshine is measured 26 km from the centre, at Stockholm Observatoriet.

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). Stockholm: 2003-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Stockholm Bromma Airport (7.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCairnsStockholm
Official languageEnglishSwedish
CurrencyAustralian Dollar (AUD)Swedish Krona (SEK)
SocketsI230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+10UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number000112
Elevation7 m22 m
Main airportCairns International Airport (CNS)6 km from centre32 non-stop destinationsStockholm-Arlanda Airport (ARN)36 km from centre174 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureCairnsStockholm
City population146,778984,748
People per km²3015,260
Museums within 10 km1266
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km13
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 Stockholm 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. Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national sources. 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.