VacationSelector
The Atomium, Brussels
BrusselsThe Atomium
Cardiff Castle, Cardiff
CardiffCardiff Castle

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

Brussels 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 Brussels for

  • food and drink
  • day trips
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Cardiff for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • beaches
  • 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. Brussels 18, Cardiff 30: Cardiff leads by 12 points.
Food & drink. Brussels 72, Cardiff 45: Brussels leads by 27 points.
Culture & sights. Brussels 74, Cardiff 58: Brussels leads by 16 points.
Nightlife. Brussels 60, Cardiff 50: Brussels leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. Brussels 45, Cardiff 70: Cardiff leads by 25 points.
Day trips. Brussels 89, Cardiff 72: Brussels leads by 17 points.
Good for families. Brussels 60, Cardiff 58: Brussels leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Brussels 72, Cardiff 66: Brussels leads by 6 points.
Shopping & style. Brussels 62, Cardiff 50: Brussels leads by 12 points.
Affordability. Brussels 40, Cardiff 46: Cardiff leads by 6 points.
Live music & performing arts. Brussels 68, Cardiff 57: Brussels leads by 11 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Brussels 33, Cardiff 27: Brussels leads by 6 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Brussels and Cardiff.

Your match

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

Brussels
Best match
58match

Wins on food and drink and day trips with your weighting.

Cardiff
52match

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

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Brussels in July

23 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
80 mmrain in the month
7 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
BrusselsCardiff

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. Brussels: 1991-2020 normals, Uccle (5.2 km from centre). Cardiff: 1991-2020 normals, Cardiff-Wales Airport (14.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBrusselsCardiff
Official languageFrench, German, DutchEnglish
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
Elevation70 m41 m
Main airportBrussels Airport (BRU)11 km from centre191 non-stop destinationsCardiff International Airport (CWL)15 km from centre30 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days8 days

By the numbers

MeasureBrusselsCardiff
City population195,546383,536
People per km²5,9082,734
Museums within 10 km1069
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km101
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 Brussels 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.