VacationSelector
The Esplanade boardwalk and its palms, Cairns
CairnsThe Esplanade boardwalk and its palms
Taipei 101 and the skyline from Elephant Mountain, Taipei
TaipeiTaipei 101 and the skyline from Elephant Mountain

Photos: Cairns by Donaldytong, Public domain; Taipei by Another Believer, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Cairns or Taipei?

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

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

Choose Taipei for

  • food and drink
  • culture and sights
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Taipei’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, Taipei 40: Cairns leads by 22 points.
Food & drink. Cairns 40, Taipei 88: Taipei leads by 48 points.
Culture & sights. Cairns 22, Taipei 68: Taipei leads by 46 points.
Nightlife. Cairns 42, Taipei 58: Taipei leads by 16 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cairns 95, Taipei 78: Cairns leads by 17 points.
Day trips. Cairns 45, Taipei 76: Taipei leads by 31 points.
Good for families. Cairns 66, Taipei 72: Taipei leads by 6 points.
Getting around. Cairns 45, Taipei 86: Taipei leads by 41 points.
Shopping & style. Cairns 28, Taipei 70: Taipei leads by 42 points.
Affordability. Cairns 35, Taipei 66: Taipei leads by 31 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cairns 22, Taipei 55: Taipei leads by 33 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cairns 45, Taipei 80: Taipei leads by 35 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cairns and Taipei.

Your match

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

Cairns
46match

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

Taipei
Best match
70match

Wins on food and drink and culture and sights 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

Taipei in July

35 °Cdaytime high
27 °Cnight-time low
288 mmrain in the month
29 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0200400600JFMAMJJASOND
CairnsTaipei

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.

Taipei 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). Taipei: 1992-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Sungshan / Taipei (3.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCairnsTaipei
Official languageEnglishTaiwanese Sign Language, Amis, Taiwanese Hokkien, Rukai, Bunun, Kanakanavu, Standard Taiwanese Mandarin, Paiwan, Yami, Atayal, Saaroa, Kavalan, Tsou, Seediq, Puyuma, Saisiyat, Sakizaya, Taiwanese Hakka, Truku, Matsu dialect, Kinmen dialect, Wuqiu dialect
CurrencyAustralian Dollar (AUD)New Taiwan Dollar (TWD)
SocketsI230 V, 50 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+10UTC+8
Emergency number000110 or 112 or 119
Elevation7 m10 m
Main airportCairns International Airport (CNS)6 km from centre32 non-stop destinationsTaiwan Taoyuan International Airport (TPE)33 km from centre
Public holidays this year11 days-

By the numbers

MeasureCairnsTaipei
City population146,7782,429,429
People per km²3018,938
Museums within 10 km169
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months8 months

Where else could you go?

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