VacationSelector
The Esplanade boardwalk and its palms, Cairns
CairnsThe Esplanade boardwalk and its palms
Valletta from the water, Valletta
VallettaValletta from the water

Photos: Cairns by Donaldytong, Public domain; Valletta by Pho Tomass, Pexels License.

Cairns or Valletta?

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
  • wellness
  • families

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

Choose Valletta for

  • culture and sights
  • day trips
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Valletta’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, Valletta 68: Valletta leads by 6 points.
Food & drink. Cairns 40, Valletta 55: Valletta leads by 15 points.
Culture & sights. Cairns 22, Valletta 76: Valletta leads by 54 points.
Nightlife. Cairns 42, Valletta 46: Valletta leads by 4 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cairns 95, Valletta 56: Cairns leads by 39 points.
Day trips. Cairns 45, Valletta 76: Valletta leads by 31 points.
Good for families. Cairns 66, Valletta 58: Cairns leads by 8 points.
Getting around. Cairns 45, Valletta 62: Valletta leads by 17 points.
Shopping & style. Cairns 28, Valletta 38: Valletta leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Cairns 35, Valletta 50: Valletta leads by 15 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cairns 22, Valletta 44: Valletta leads by 22 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cairns 45, Valletta 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 Valletta.

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 wellness with your weighting.

Valletta
Best match
55match

Wins on culture and sights and day trips 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

Valletta in July

32 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0200400600JFMAMJJASOND
CairnsValletta

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). Valletta: 1991-2020 normals, Luqa (5.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCairnsValletta
Official languageEnglishEnglish, Maltese
CurrencyAustralian Dollar (AUD)Euro (EUR)
SocketsI230 V, 50 HzG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+10UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number000112
Elevation7 m56 m
Main airportCairns International Airport (CNS)6 km from centre32 non-stop destinationsMalta International Airport (MLA)6 km from centre113 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureCairnsValletta
City population146,7785,197
People per km²3016,496
Museums within 10 km116
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km13
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months6 months

Where else could you go?

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