VacationSelector
The Esplanade boardwalk and its palms, Cairns
CairnsThe Esplanade boardwalk and its palms
Skiers in front of the big timber lodge at the resort, Winter Park, Colorado
Winter Park, ColoradoSkiers in front of the big timber lodge at the resort

Photos: Cairns by Donaldytong, Public domain; Winter Park, Colorado by Murray Foubister, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Cairns or Winter Park, Colorado?

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
  • nightlife
  • food and drink

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

Choose Winter Park, Colorado for

  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Winter Park, Colorado’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, Winter Park, Colorado 5: Cairns leads by 57 points.
Food & drink. Cairns 40, Winter Park, Colorado 24: Cairns leads by 16 points.
Culture & sights. Cairns 22, Winter Park, Colorado 6: Cairns leads by 16 points.
Nightlife. Cairns 42, Winter Park, Colorado 15: Cairns leads by 27 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cairns 95, Winter Park, Colorado 88: Cairns leads by 7 points.
Day trips. Cairns 45, Winter Park, Colorado 38: Cairns leads by 7 points.
Good for families. Cairns 66, Winter Park, Colorado 62: Cairns leads by 4 points.
Getting around. Cairns 45, Winter Park, Colorado 42: Cairns leads by 3 points.
Shopping & style. Cairns 28, Winter Park, Colorado 12: Cairns leads by 16 points.
Affordability. Cairns 35, Winter Park, Colorado 25: Cairns leads by 10 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cairns 22, Winter Park, Colorado 12: Cairns leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cairns 45, Winter Park, Colorado 46: Winter Park, Colorado leads by 1 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cairns and Winter Park, Colorado.

Your match

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

Cairns
Best match
46match

Wins on beaches and nightlife with your weighting.

Winter Park, Colorado
31match

Wins on 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

Winter Park, Colorado in July

21 °Cdaytime high
5 °Cnight-time low
39 mmrain in the month
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0200400600JFMAMJJASOND
CairnsWinter Park, Colorado

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.

Winter Park, Colorado's temperatures are measured 90 km from the centre, at Leadville / Stringtown.

Winter Park, Colorado's station stands 269 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer than the figures say.

Winter Park, Colorado 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). Winter Park, Colorado: 2006-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Leadville / Stringtown (89.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCairnsWinter Park, Colorado
Official languageEnglish-
CurrencyAustralian Dollar (AUD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsI230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+10UTC-7, UTC-6 in summer
Emergency number000911
Elevation7 m2,759 m
Main airportCairns International Airport (CNS)6 km from centre32 non-stop destinationsDenver International Airport (DEN)95 km from centre231 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureCairnsWinter Park, Colorado
City population146,7781,033
People per km²30124
Museums within 10 km10
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
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 Winter Park, Colorado 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.