VacationSelector
The Massachusetts State House, Boston
BostonThe Massachusetts State House
Cardiff Castle, Cardiff
CardiffCardiff Castle

Photos: Boston by Ajay Suresh, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Cardiff by Tevfik Teker, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Boston 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 Boston for

  • food and drink
  • live music and the arts
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Cardiff for

  • prices
  • nature and the outdoors
  • nightlife

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. Boston 35, Cardiff 30: Boston leads by 5 points.
Food & drink. Boston 64, Cardiff 45: Boston leads by 19 points.
Culture & sights. Boston 72, Cardiff 58: Boston leads by 14 points.
Nightlife. Boston 47, Cardiff 50: Cardiff leads by 3 points.
Nature & outdoors. Boston 60, Cardiff 70: Cardiff leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Boston and Cardiff are level on 72.
Good for families. Boston 72, Cardiff 58: Boston leads by 14 points.
Getting around. Boston 70, Cardiff 66: Boston leads by 4 points.
Shopping & style. Boston 55, Cardiff 50: Boston leads by 5 points.
Affordability. Boston 18, Cardiff 46: Cardiff leads by 28 points.
Live music & performing arts. Boston 72, Cardiff 57: Boston leads by 15 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Boston 30, Cardiff 27: Boston leads by 3 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Boston
Best match
56match

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

Cardiff
52match

Wins on prices and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Boston in July

28 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
82 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
18 °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°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
BostonCardiff

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. Boston: 1991-2020 normals, Boston Logan International (3.5 km from centre). Cardiff: 1991-2020 normals, Cardiff-Wales Airport (14.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBostonCardiff
Official language-English
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Pound Sterling (GBP)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC, UTC+1 in summer
Emergency number911112 or 999
Elevation43 m41 m
Main airportBoston Logan International Airport (BOS)4 km from centre144 non-stop destinationsCardiff International Airport (CWL)15 km from centre30 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days8 days

By the numbers

MeasureBostonCardiff
City population675,647383,536
People per km²2,9102,734
Museums within 10 km519
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °CNoneNone

Where else could you go?

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