Photos: Baku by Zulfugar Karimov, Pexels License; Cardiff by Tevfik Teker, CC BY 3.0, cropped.
Baku 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 Baku for
- prices
- food and drink
- beaches
What lies behind each score is written up on Baku’s own page.
Choose Cardiff for
- nature and the outdoors
- day trips
- families
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.
What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Baku and Cardiff.
Your match
Pick a travel style or drag the sliders, and both match scores follow your weighting.
Wins on prices and food and drink with your weighting.
Wins on nature and the outdoors 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.
Baku in July
Cardiff in July
Daytime high, °C
Rainfall in the month, mm
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. Baku: 1991-2020 normals, Mashtaga (23.2 km from centre). Cardiff: 1991-2020 normals, Cardiff-Wales Airport (14.9 km from centre).
Before you go
| Measure | Baku | Cardiff |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | Azerbaijani, Azerbaijani Sign Language | English |
| Currency | Azerbaijan Manat (AZN) | Pound Sterling (GBP) |
| Sockets | CF220 V, 50 Hz | G230 V, 50 Hz |
| Driving side | Right | Left |
| Time zone | UTC+4 | UTC, UTC+1 in summer |
| Emergency number | 102 or 112 | 112 or 999 |
| Elevation | -28 m | 41 m |
| Main airport | Heydar Aliyev International Airport (GYD)22 km from centre79 non-stop destinations | Cardiff International Airport (CWL)15 km from centre30 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | - | 8 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Baku | Cardiff |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 2,300,500 | 383,536 |
| People per km² | 1,075 | 2,734 |
| Museums within 10 km | 50 | 9 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 2 | 1 |
| Swim season, months above 21 °C | 4 months | None |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Baku or Cardiff somewhere new.