VacationSelector
Bryggen across Vågen, Bergen
BergenBryggen across Vågen
Cardiff Castle, Cardiff
CardiffCardiff Castle

Photos: Bergen by Abdullah Guc, Pexels License; Cardiff by Tevfik Teker, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Bergen 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 Bergen for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • getting around
  • wellness

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

Choose Cardiff for

  • day trips
  • prices
  • shopping

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. Bergen 20, Cardiff 30: Cardiff leads by 10 points.
Food & drink. Bergen 47, Cardiff 45: Bergen leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Bergen 55, Cardiff 58: Cardiff leads by 3 points.
Nightlife. Bergen 40, Cardiff 50: Cardiff leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bergen 88, Cardiff 70: Bergen leads by 18 points.
Day trips. Bergen 38, Cardiff 72: Cardiff leads by 34 points.
Good for families. Bergen 60, Cardiff 58: Bergen leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Bergen 74, Cardiff 66: Bergen leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. Bergen 33, Cardiff 50: Cardiff leads by 17 points.
Affordability. Bergen 12, Cardiff 46: Cardiff leads by 34 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bergen 58, Cardiff 57: Bergen leads by 1 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bergen 32, Cardiff 27: Bergen leads by 5 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Bergen and Cardiff.

Your match

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

Bergen
46match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and getting around with your weighting.

Cardiff
Best match
52match

Wins on day trips and prices with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Bergen in July

20 °Cdaytime high
12 °Cnight-time low
159 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
15 °Csea
18 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

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
BergenCardiff

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. Bergen: 1991-2020 normals, Bergen / Florida (1.2 km from centre). Cardiff: 1991-2020 normals, Cardiff-Wales Airport (14.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBergenCardiff
Official languageNorwegian, Nynorsk, Bokmål, SámiEnglish
CurrencyNorwegian Krone (NOK)Pound Sterling (GBP)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC, UTC+1 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 112, ambulance 113, fire 110112 or 999
Elevation5 m41 m
Main airportBergen Airport, Flesland (BGO)12 km from centre64 non-stop destinationsCardiff International Airport (CWL)15 km from centre30 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days8 days

By the numbers

MeasureBergenCardiff
City population291,189383,536
People per km²3,3392,734
Museums within 10 km319
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
Swim season, months above 21 °CNoneNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Bergen 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). 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.