VacationSelector
The Brandenburg Gate, Berlin
BerlinThe Brandenburg Gate
Cardiff Castle, Cardiff
CardiffCardiff Castle

Photos: Berlin by Claudia Solano, Pexels License; Cardiff by Tevfik Teker, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Berlin 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 Berlin for

  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Cardiff for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • 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. Berlin 38, Cardiff 30: Berlin leads by 8 points.
Food & drink. Berlin 66, Cardiff 45: Berlin leads by 21 points.
Culture & sights. Berlin 86, Cardiff 58: Berlin leads by 28 points.
Nightlife. Berlin 98, Cardiff 50: Berlin leads by 48 points.
Nature & outdoors. Berlin 50, Cardiff 70: Cardiff leads by 20 points.
Day trips. Berlin 66, Cardiff 72: Cardiff leads by 6 points.
Good for families. Berlin 76, Cardiff 58: Berlin leads by 18 points.
Getting around. Berlin 82, Cardiff 66: Berlin leads by 16 points.
Shopping & style. Berlin 68, Cardiff 50: Berlin leads by 18 points.
Affordability. Berlin 48, Cardiff 46: Berlin leads by 2 points.
Live music & performing arts. Berlin 90, Cardiff 57: Berlin leads by 33 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Berlin 55, Cardiff 27: Berlin leads by 28 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Berlin and Cardiff.

Your match

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

Berlin
Best match
69match

Wins on nightlife and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Cardiff
52match

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.

Berlin in July

25 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
76 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
No seasea
16 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
BerlinCardiff

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. Berlin: 1991-2020 normals, Berlin / Alexanderplatz (0.9 km from centre). Cardiff: 1991-2020 normals, Cardiff-Wales Airport (14.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBerlinCardiff
Official languageGermanEnglish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Pound Sterling (GBP)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC, UTC+1 in summer
Emergency number112112 or 999
Elevation34 m41 m
Main airportBerlin Brandenburg Airport (BER)19 km from centre161 non-stop destinationsCardiff International Airport (CWL)15 km from centre30 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days8 days

By the numbers

MeasureBerlinCardiff
City population3,700,577383,536
People per km²4,1532,734
Museums within 10 km1579
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km41
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 Berlin 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). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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.