VacationSelector
The Georgia State Capitol, Atlanta
AtlantaThe Georgia State Capitol
Cardiff Castle, Cardiff
CardiffCardiff Castle

Photos: Atlanta by DXR, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Cardiff by Tevfik Teker, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Atlanta 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 Atlanta for

  • food and drink
  • nightlife
  • families

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

Choose Cardiff for

  • getting around
  • beaches
  • day trips

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. Atlanta 10, Cardiff 30: Cardiff leads by 20 points.
Food & drink. Atlanta 68, Cardiff 45: Atlanta leads by 23 points.
Culture & sights. Atlanta 55, Cardiff 58: Cardiff leads by 3 points.
Nightlife. Atlanta 65, Cardiff 50: Atlanta leads by 15 points.
Nature & outdoors. Atlanta 60, Cardiff 70: Cardiff leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Atlanta 52, Cardiff 72: Cardiff leads by 20 points.
Good for families. Atlanta 70, Cardiff 58: Atlanta leads by 12 points.
Getting around. Atlanta 28, Cardiff 66: Cardiff leads by 38 points.
Shopping & style. Atlanta and Cardiff are level on 50.
Affordability. Atlanta 40, Cardiff 46: Cardiff leads by 6 points.
Live music & performing arts. Atlanta 62, Cardiff 57: Atlanta leads by 5 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Atlanta 33, Cardiff 27: Atlanta leads by 6 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Atlanta and Cardiff.

Your match

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

Atlanta
49match

Wins on food and drink and nightlife with your weighting.

Cardiff
Best match
52match

Wins on getting around and beaches with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Atlanta in July

32 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
120 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
14 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
AtlantaCardiff

Where the figures come from

Atlanta 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 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. Atlanta: 2006-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Atlanta / Carroll Heights (12.5 km from centre). Cardiff: 1991-2020 normals, Cardiff-Wales Airport (14.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAtlantaCardiff
Official language-English
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Pound Sterling (GBP)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC, UTC+1 in summer
Emergency number911112 or 999
Elevation225 m41 m
Main airportHartsfield Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL)14 km from centre238 non-stop destinationsCardiff International Airport (CWL)15 km from centre30 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days8 days

By the numbers

MeasureAtlantaCardiff
City population498,715383,536
People per km²1,4332,734
Museums within 10 km279
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C-None

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Atlanta 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. 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.