VacationSelector
The Auckland skyline and Sky Tower from the Waitematā Harbour, Auckland
AucklandThe Auckland skyline and Sky Tower from the Waitematā Harbour
Cardiff Castle, Cardiff
CardiffCardiff Castle

Photos: Auckland by Pseudopanax at English Wikipedia, Public domain; Cardiff by Tevfik Teker, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Auckland 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 Auckland for

  • beaches
  • wellness
  • food and drink

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

Choose Cardiff for

  • getting around
  • day trips
  • culture and sights

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. Auckland 68, Cardiff 30: Auckland leads by 38 points.
Food & drink. Auckland 62, Cardiff 45: Auckland leads by 17 points.
Culture & sights. Auckland 44, Cardiff 58: Cardiff leads by 14 points.
Nightlife. Auckland 42, Cardiff 50: Cardiff leads by 8 points.
Nature & outdoors. Auckland 83, Cardiff 70: Auckland leads by 13 points.
Day trips. Auckland 55, Cardiff 72: Cardiff leads by 17 points.
Good for families. Auckland 70, Cardiff 58: Auckland leads by 12 points.
Getting around. Auckland 42, Cardiff 66: Cardiff leads by 24 points.
Shopping & style. Auckland 45, Cardiff 50: Cardiff leads by 5 points.
Affordability. Auckland 32, Cardiff 46: Cardiff leads by 14 points.
Live music & performing arts. Auckland 45, Cardiff 57: Cardiff leads by 12 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Auckland 45, Cardiff 27: Auckland leads by 18 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Auckland and Cardiff.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Auckland
53match

Wins on beaches and wellness with your weighting.

Cardiff
52match

Wins on getting around and day trips with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Auckland in July

14 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
135 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
14 °Csea
10 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°5°10°15°20°25°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
AucklandCardiff

Where the figures come from

Auckland's station stands 189 m below the city centre, so the centre is likely a little cooler than the figures say.

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. Auckland: 1961-1990 normals, Auckland Aerodrome Aws (17 km from centre). Cardiff: 1991-2020 normals, Cardiff-Wales Airport (14.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAucklandCardiff
Official languageEnglish, New Zealand Sign Language, MāoriEnglish
CurrencyNew Zealand Dollar (NZD)Pound Sterling (GBP)
SocketsI230 V, 50 HzG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+12, UTC+13 in summerUTC, UTC+1 in summer
Emergency number111112 or 999
Elevation196 m41 m
Main airportAuckland International Airport (AKL)18 km from centre63 non-stop destinationsCardiff International Airport (CWL)15 km from centre30 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days8 days

By the numbers

MeasureAucklandCardiff
City population1,470,100383,536
People per km²2,6302,734
Museums within 10 km159
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C1 monthNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Auckland 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). 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.