VacationSelector
The Hôtel du Palais, Biarritz
BiarritzThe Hôtel du Palais
Cardiff Castle, Cardiff
CardiffCardiff Castle

Photos: Biarritz by Lilipiapia, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Cardiff by Tevfik Teker, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Biarritz 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 Biarritz for

  • beaches
  • wellness
  • food and drink

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

Choose Cardiff for

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

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. Biarritz 68, Cardiff 30: Biarritz leads by 38 points.
Food & drink. Biarritz 62, Cardiff 45: Biarritz leads by 17 points.
Culture & sights. Biarritz 33, Cardiff 58: Cardiff leads by 25 points.
Nightlife. Biarritz 36, Cardiff 50: Cardiff leads by 14 points.
Nature & outdoors. Biarritz 74, Cardiff 70: Biarritz leads by 4 points.
Day trips. Biarritz 80, Cardiff 72: Biarritz leads by 8 points.
Good for families. Biarritz 62, Cardiff 58: Biarritz leads by 4 points.
Getting around. Biarritz 58, Cardiff 66: Cardiff leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. Biarritz 42, Cardiff 50: Cardiff leads by 8 points.
Affordability. Biarritz 30, Cardiff 46: Cardiff leads by 16 points.
Live music & performing arts. Biarritz 38, Cardiff 57: Cardiff leads by 19 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Biarritz 64, Cardiff 27: Biarritz leads by 37 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Biarritz 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

Biarritz
54match

Wins on beaches and wellness with your weighting.

Cardiff
52match

Wins on culture and sights and live music and the arts with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Biarritz in July

24 °Cdaytime high
17 °Cnight-time low
97 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
21 °Csea
15 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

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
BiarritzCardiff

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. Biarritz: 1999-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Biarritz (2.5 km from centre). Cardiff: 1991-2020 normals, Cardiff-Wales Airport (14.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBiarritzCardiff
Official languageFrenchEnglish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Pound Sterling (GBP)
SocketsCE230 V, 50 HzG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC, UTC+1 in summer
Emergency number112112 or 999
Elevation0 m41 m
Main airportBiarritz Pays Basque airport (BIQ)3 km from centre25 non-stop destinationsCardiff International Airport (CWL)15 km from centre30 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days8 days

By the numbers

MeasureBiarritzCardiff
City population26,206383,536
People per km²2,2402,734
Museums within 10 km89
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
Swim season, months above 21 °C2 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

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