VacationSelector
Cardiff Castle, Cardiff
CardiffCardiff Castle
Fort Lovrijenac above the sea, Dubrovnik
DubrovnikFort Lovrijenac above the sea

Photos: Cardiff by Tevfik Teker, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Dubrovnik by Natalia Semenova, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Cardiff or Dubrovnik?

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

  • live music and the arts
  • shopping
  • prices

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

Choose Dubrovnik for

  • beaches
  • culture and sights
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Dubrovnik’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, Dubrovnik 74: Dubrovnik leads by 44 points.
Food & drink. Cardiff 45, Dubrovnik 47: Dubrovnik leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Cardiff 58, Dubrovnik 72: Dubrovnik leads by 14 points.
Nightlife. Cardiff 50, Dubrovnik 37: Cardiff leads by 13 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cardiff and Dubrovnik are level on 70.
Day trips. Cardiff 72, Dubrovnik 66: Cardiff leads by 6 points.
Good for families. Cardiff 58, Dubrovnik 50: Cardiff leads by 8 points.
Getting around. Cardiff 66, Dubrovnik 60: Cardiff leads by 6 points.
Shopping & style. Cardiff 50, Dubrovnik 25: Cardiff leads by 25 points.
Affordability. Cardiff 46, Dubrovnik 28: Cardiff leads by 18 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cardiff 57, Dubrovnik 25: Cardiff leads by 32 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cardiff 27, Dubrovnik 32: Dubrovnik leads by 5 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cardiff and Dubrovnik.

Your match

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

Cardiff
Best match
52match

Wins on live music and the arts and shopping with your weighting.

Dubrovnik
49match

Wins on beaches 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.

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

Dubrovnik in July

29 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
29 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
CardiffDubrovnik

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.

Dubrovnik 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.

Dubrovnik's sunshine is measured 83 km from the centre, at Mostar.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cardiff: 1991-2020 normals, Cardiff-Wales Airport (14.9 km from centre). Dubrovnik: 1999-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Dubrovnik / Cilipi (15.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCardiffDubrovnik
Official languageEnglishCroatian
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 m10 m
Main airportCardiff International Airport (CWL)15 km from centre30 non-stop destinationsDubrovnik Ruđer Bošković Airport (DBV)16 km from centre76 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year8 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureCardiffDubrovnik
City population383,53641,562
People per km²2,734-
Museums within 10 km97
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km13
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone5 months

Where else could you go?

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