VacationSelector
The Explanada de España, Alicante
AlicanteThe Explanada de España
Cardiff Castle, Cardiff
CardiffCardiff Castle

Photos: Alicante by Emilio Sánchez Hernández, Pexels License; Cardiff by Tevfik Teker, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Alicante or Cardiff?

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 Alicante for

  • beaches
  • food and drink
  • prices

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

Choose Cardiff for

  • live music and the arts
  • culture and sights
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Cardiff’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. Alicante 82, Cardiff 30: Alicante leads by 52 points.
Food & drink. Alicante 67, Cardiff 45: Alicante leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. Alicante 46, Cardiff 58: Cardiff leads by 12 points.
Nightlife. Alicante 60, Cardiff 50: Alicante leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. Alicante 63, Cardiff 70: Cardiff leads by 7 points.
Day trips. Alicante and Cardiff are level on 72.
Good for families. Alicante 68, Cardiff 58: Alicante leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Alicante and Cardiff are level on 66.
Shopping & style. Alicante 44, Cardiff 50: Cardiff leads by 6 points.
Affordability. Alicante 60, Cardiff 46: Alicante leads by 14 points.
Live music & performing arts. Alicante 37, Cardiff 57: Cardiff leads by 20 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Alicante 40, Cardiff 27: Alicante leads by 13 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Alicante and Cardiff.

Your match

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

Alicante
Best match
59match

Wins on beaches and food and drink with your weighting.

Cardiff
52match

Wins on live music and the arts 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.

Alicante in July

30 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
3 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Cardiff in July

20 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
83 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
17 °Csea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
AlicanteCardiff

Where the figures come from

Cardiff 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.

Cardiff's sunshine is measured 83 km from the centre, at Lyneham.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Alicante: 1991-2020 normals, Alicante (2.8 km from centre). Cardiff: 1991-2020 normals, Cardiff-Wales Airport (14.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAlicanteCardiff
Official languageSpanishEnglish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Pound Sterling (GBP)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC, UTC+1 in summer
Emergency number112112 or 999
Elevation3 m41 m
Main airportAlicante-Elche Miguel Hernández Airport (ALC)10 km from centre126 non-stop destinationsCardiff International Airport (CWL)15 km from centre30 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days8 days

By the numbers

MeasureAlicanteCardiff
City population366,221383,536
People per km²1,8192,734
Museums within 10 km89
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
Swim season, months above 21 °C5 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Alicante or Cardiff 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). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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.