VacationSelector
The Story Bridge from Howard Smith Wharves, Brisbane
BrisbaneThe Story Bridge from Howard Smith Wharves
Cardiff Castle, Cardiff
CardiffCardiff Castle

Photos: Brisbane by Kgbo, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Cardiff by Tevfik Teker, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Brisbane 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 Brisbane for

  • beaches
  • families
  • food and drink

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

Choose Cardiff for

  • day trips
  • culture and sights
  • 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. Brisbane 55, Cardiff 30: Brisbane leads by 25 points.
Food & drink. Brisbane 60, Cardiff 45: Brisbane leads by 15 points.
Culture & sights. Brisbane 42, Cardiff 58: Cardiff leads by 16 points.
Nightlife. Brisbane 55, Cardiff 50: Brisbane leads by 5 points.
Nature & outdoors. Brisbane 74, Cardiff 70: Brisbane leads by 4 points.
Day trips. Brisbane 50, Cardiff 72: Cardiff leads by 22 points.
Good for families. Brisbane 78, Cardiff 58: Brisbane leads by 20 points.
Getting around. Brisbane 62, Cardiff 66: Cardiff leads by 4 points.
Shopping & style. Brisbane 45, Cardiff 50: Cardiff leads by 5 points.
Affordability. Brisbane 33, Cardiff 46: Cardiff leads by 13 points.
Live music & performing arts. Brisbane 55, Cardiff 57: Cardiff leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Brisbane 40, Cardiff 27: Brisbane leads by 13 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Brisbane 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

Brisbane
54match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

Cardiff
52match

Wins on day trips and culture and sights with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Brisbane in July

22 °Cdaytime high
10 °Cnight-time low
27 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
20 °Csea
11 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°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
BrisbaneCardiff

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. Brisbane: 1991-2020 normals, Brisbane (4.5 km from centre). Cardiff: 1991-2020 normals, Cardiff-Wales Airport (14.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBrisbaneCardiff
Official languageEnglishEnglish
CurrencyAustralian Dollar (AUD)Pound Sterling (GBP)
SocketsI230 V, 50 HzG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+10UTC, UTC+1 in summer
Emergency number000112 or 999
Elevation0 m41 m
Main airportBrisbane International Airport (BNE)13 km from centre88 non-stop destinationsCardiff International Airport (CWL)15 km from centre30 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days8 days

By the numbers

MeasureBrisbaneCardiff
City population2,706,966383,536
People per km²1712,734
Museums within 10 km169
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C9 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

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