VacationSelector
The Texas State Capitol under a blue sky, Austin
AustinThe Texas State Capitol under a blue sky
Cardiff Castle, Cardiff
CardiffCardiff Castle

Photos: Austin by LoneStarMike, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Cardiff by Tevfik Teker, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Austin 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 Austin for

  • food and drink
  • live music and the arts
  • nightlife

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

Choose Cardiff for

  • getting around
  • culture and sights
  • 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. Austin and Cardiff are level on 30.
Food & drink. Austin 66, Cardiff 45: Austin leads by 21 points.
Culture & sights. Austin 40, Cardiff 58: Cardiff leads by 18 points.
Nightlife. Austin 65, Cardiff 50: Austin leads by 15 points.
Nature & outdoors. Austin 57, Cardiff 70: Cardiff leads by 13 points.
Day trips. Austin 58, Cardiff 72: Cardiff leads by 14 points.
Good for families. Austin 55, Cardiff 58: Cardiff leads by 3 points.
Getting around. Austin 30, Cardiff 66: Cardiff leads by 36 points.
Shopping & style. Austin 45, Cardiff 50: Cardiff leads by 5 points.
Affordability. Austin 33, Cardiff 46: Cardiff leads by 13 points.
Live music & performing arts. Austin 77, Cardiff 57: Austin leads by 20 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Austin 40, Cardiff 27: Austin leads by 13 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Austin and Cardiff.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Austin
50match

Wins on food and drink and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Cardiff
52match

Wins on getting around 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.

Austin in July

36 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
49 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine 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
AustinCardiff

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. Austin: 1991-2020 normals, Camp Mabry/Austin City Asos (3.7 km from centre). Cardiff: 1991-2020 normals, Cardiff-Wales Airport (14.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAustinCardiff
Official language-English
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Pound Sterling (GBP)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-6, UTC-5 in summerUTC, UTC+1 in summer
Emergency number911112 or 999
Elevation149 m41 m
Main airportAustin Bergstrom International Airport (AUS)13 km from centre91 non-stop destinationsCardiff International Airport (CWL)15 km from centre30 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days8 days

By the numbers

MeasureAustinCardiff
City population961,855383,536
People per km²1,2172,734
Museums within 10 km219
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 Austin 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.