Photos: Busan by Andrea De Santis, Pexels License; Cardiff by Tevfik Teker, CC BY 3.0, cropped.
Busan 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 Busan for
- wellness
- beaches
- food and drink
What lies behind each score is written up on Busan’s own page.
Choose Cardiff for
- live music and the arts
- culture and sights
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.
What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Busan and Cardiff.
Your match
Pick a travel style or drag the sliders, and both match scores follow your weighting.
Wins on wellness and beaches with your weighting.
Wins on live music and the arts 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.
Busan in July
Cardiff in July
Daytime high, °C
Rainfall in the month, mm
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. Busan: 1991-2020 normals, Pusan (9.7 km from centre). Cardiff: 1991-2020 normals, Cardiff-Wales Airport (14.9 km from centre).
Before you go
| Measure | Busan | Cardiff |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | Korean, Korean Sign Language | English |
| Currency | Won (KRW) | Pound Sterling (GBP) |
| Sockets | CF220 V, 60 Hz | G230 V, 50 Hz |
| Driving side | Right | Left |
| Time zone | UTC+9 | UTC, UTC+1 in summer |
| Emergency number | Police 112, ambulance 119, fire 119 | 112 or 999 |
| Elevation | 30 m | 41 m |
| Main airport | Gimhae International Airport (PUS)12 km from centre49 non-stop destinations | Cardiff International Airport (CWL)15 km from centre30 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 18 days | 8 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Busan | Cardiff |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 3,453,198 | 383,536 |
| People per km² | 4,486 | 2,734 |
| Museums within 10 km | 7 | 9 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 3 | 1 |
| Swim season, months above 21 °C | 4 months | None |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Busan or Cardiff somewhere new.