VacationSelector
The Esplanade boardwalk and its palms, Cairns
CairnsThe Esplanade boardwalk and its palms
A painted funicular on the hillside, Valparaiso
ValparaisoA painted funicular on the hillside

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

Cairns or Valparaiso?

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 Valparaiso for

  • culture and sights
  • prices
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Valparaiso’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, Valparaiso 36: Cairns leads by 26 points.
Food & drink. Cairns 40, Valparaiso 50: Valparaiso leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. Cairns 22, Valparaiso 62: Valparaiso leads by 40 points.
Nightlife. Cairns 42, Valparaiso 56: Valparaiso leads by 14 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cairns 95, Valparaiso 60: Cairns leads by 35 points.
Day trips. Cairns 45, Valparaiso 63: Valparaiso leads by 18 points.
Good for families. Cairns 66, Valparaiso 33: Cairns leads by 33 points.
Getting around. Cairns 45, Valparaiso 44: Cairns leads by 1 points.
Shopping & style. Cairns 28, Valparaiso 30: Valparaiso leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Cairns 35, Valparaiso 60: Valparaiso leads by 25 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cairns 22, Valparaiso 38: Valparaiso leads by 16 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cairns 45, Valparaiso 18: Cairns leads by 27 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cairns and Valparaiso.

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 nature and the outdoors and families with your weighting.

Valparaiso
46match

Wins on culture and sights and prices 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

Valparaiso in July

15 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
71 mmrain in the month
13 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0200400600JFMAMJJASOND
CairnsValparaiso

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.

Valparaiso 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). Valparaiso: 2010-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Viña Del Mar / Montemar (17 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCairnsValparaiso
Official languageEnglishSpanish
CurrencyAustralian Dollar (AUD)Chilean Peso (CLP)
SocketsI230 V, 50 HzCL220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+10UTC-4, UTC-3 in summer
Emergency number000Police 133/134, ambulance 131, fire 132
Elevation7 m21 m
Main airportCairns International Airport (CNS)6 km from centre32 non-stop destinationsComodoro Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport (SCL)87 km from centre67 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureCairnsValparaiso
City population146,778296,655
People per km²3016,180
Museums within 10 km117
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
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 Valparaiso 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.