VacationSelector
Cardiff Castle, Cardiff
CardiffCardiff Castle
The cathedral and Great St. Martin on the Rhine, Cologne
CologneThe cathedral and Great St. Martin on the Rhine

Photos: Cardiff by Tevfik Teker, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Cologne by Jörg Braukmann, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Cardiff or Cologne?

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 Cardiff for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Cologne for

  • wellness
  • nightlife
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Cologne’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. Cardiff 30, Cologne 14: Cardiff leads by 16 points.
Food & drink. Cardiff 45, Cologne 52: Cologne leads by 7 points.
Culture & sights. Cardiff 58, Cologne 67: Cologne leads by 9 points.
Nightlife. Cardiff 50, Cologne 66: Cologne leads by 16 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cardiff 70, Cologne 56: Cardiff leads by 14 points.
Day trips. Cardiff 72, Cologne 80: Cologne leads by 8 points.
Good for families. Cardiff 58, Cologne 70: Cologne leads by 12 points.
Getting around. Cardiff 66, Cologne 74: Cologne leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. Cardiff 50, Cologne 57: Cologne leads by 7 points.
Affordability. Cardiff and Cologne are level on 46.
Live music & performing arts. Cardiff 57, Cologne 68: Cologne leads by 11 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cardiff 27, Cologne 50: Cologne leads by 23 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cardiff and Cologne.

Your match

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

Cardiff
52match

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

Cologne
Best match
58match

Wins on wellness and nightlife with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

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

Cologne in July

25 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
81 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
No seasea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°5°10°15°20°25°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
CardiffCologne

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. Cardiff: 1991-2020 normals, Cardiff-Wales Airport (14.9 km from centre). Cologne: 1991-2020 normals, Köln-Stammheim (5.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCardiffCologne
Official languageEnglishGerman
CurrencyPound Sterling (GBP)Euro (EUR)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112 or 999112
Elevation41 m59 m
Main airportCardiff International Airport (CWL)15 km from centre30 non-stop destinationsCologne Bonn Airport (CGN)15 km from centre115 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year8 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureCardiffCologne
City population383,5361,025,523
People per km²2,7342,532
Museums within 10 km940
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km13
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Cardiff or Cologne 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. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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.