VacationSelector
The Esplanade boardwalk and its palms, Cairns
CairnsThe Esplanade boardwalk and its palms
The Limmat from Quaibrücke, Zurich
ZurichThe Limmat from Quaibrücke

Photos: Cairns by Donaldytong, Public domain; Zurich by Daniel Kraft, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Cairns or Zurich?

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

  • prices
  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Zurich for

  • getting around
  • live music and the arts
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Zurich’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, Zurich 45: Cairns leads by 17 points.
Food & drink. Cairns 40, Zurich 53: Zurich leads by 13 points.
Culture & sights. Cairns 22, Zurich 58: Zurich leads by 36 points.
Nightlife. Cairns 42, Zurich 62: Zurich leads by 20 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cairns 95, Zurich 80: Cairns leads by 15 points.
Day trips. Cairns 45, Zurich 84: Zurich leads by 39 points.
Good for families. Cairns 66, Zurich 76: Zurich leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Cairns 45, Zurich 95: Zurich leads by 50 points.
Shopping & style. Cairns 28, Zurich 66: Zurich leads by 38 points.
Affordability. Cairns 35, Zurich 3: Cairns leads by 32 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cairns 22, Zurich 70: Zurich leads by 48 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cairns 45, Zurich 58: Zurich leads by 13 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cairns and Zurich.

Your match

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

Cairns
46match

Wins on prices and beaches with your weighting.

Zurich
Best match
63match

Wins on getting around 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

Zurich in July

24 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
126 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
No seasea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0200400600JFMAMJJASOND
CairnsZurich

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). Zurich: 1991-2020 normals, Zurich Town / Ville. (2.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCairnsZurich
Official languageEnglishFrench, German, Italian, Romansh
CurrencyAustralian Dollar (AUD)Swiss Franc (CHF)
SocketsI230 V, 50 HzCJ230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+10UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number000112
Elevation7 m408 m
Main airportCairns International Airport (CNS)6 km from centre32 non-stop destinationsZürich Airport (ZRH)9 km from centre226 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days10 days

By the numbers

MeasureCairnsZurich
City population146,778440,935
People per km²3015,016
Museums within 10 km163
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
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 Zurich 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.