VacationSelector
Cardiff Castle, Cardiff
CardiffCardiff Castle
Beira Lake with Seema Malaka and the Lotus Tower, Colombo
ColomboBeira Lake with Seema Malaka and the Lotus Tower

Photos: Cardiff by Tevfik Teker, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Colombo by Mohamed Ansaf, Pexels License.

Cardiff or Colombo?

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

  • nature and the outdoors
  • getting around
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Colombo for

  • prices
  • beaches
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Colombo’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, Colombo 55: Colombo leads by 25 points.
Food & drink. Cardiff 45, Colombo 66: Colombo leads by 21 points.
Culture & sights. Cardiff 58, Colombo 45: Cardiff leads by 13 points.
Nightlife. Cardiff 50, Colombo 35: Cardiff leads by 15 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cardiff 70, Colombo 32: Cardiff leads by 38 points.
Day trips. Cardiff 72, Colombo 50: Cardiff leads by 22 points.
Good for families. Cardiff 58, Colombo 35: Cardiff leads by 23 points.
Getting around. Cardiff 66, Colombo 35: Cardiff leads by 31 points.
Shopping & style. Cardiff 50, Colombo 45: Cardiff leads by 5 points.
Affordability. Cardiff 46, Colombo 78: Colombo leads by 32 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cardiff 57, Colombo 30: Cardiff leads by 27 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cardiff 27, Colombo 48: Colombo leads by 21 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cardiff and Colombo.

Your match

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

Cardiff
Best match
52match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and getting around with your weighting.

Colombo
46match

Wins on prices 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.

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

Colombo in July

30 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
128 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
28 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
CardiffColombo

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). Colombo: 1991-2020 normals, Colombo (3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCardiffColombo
Official languageEnglishTamil, Sinhala
CurrencyPound Sterling (GBP)Sri Lanka Rupee (LKR)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzGM230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC+5:30
Emergency number112 or 999Police 119, ambulance 110, fire 110
Elevation41 m1 m
Main airportCardiff International Airport (CWL)15 km from centre30 non-stop destinationsBandaranaike International Colombo Airport (CMB)28 km from centre56 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year8 days-

By the numbers

MeasureCardiffColombo
City population383,536647,557
People per km²2,73417,361
Museums within 10 km910
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Cardiff or Colombo 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.