VacationSelector
Cardiff Castle, Cardiff
CardiffCardiff Castle
Praia Mole in Florianopolis, Florianopolis
FlorianopolisPraia Mole in Florianopolis

Photos: Cardiff by Tevfik Teker, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Florianopolis by Papa Pic, CC0.

Cardiff or Florianopolis?

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

  • getting around
  • live music and the arts
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Florianopolis for

  • beaches
  • wellness
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Florianopolis’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, Florianopolis 85: Florianopolis leads by 55 points.
Food & drink. Cardiff 45, Florianopolis 58: Florianopolis leads by 13 points.
Culture & sights. Cardiff 58, Florianopolis 33: Cardiff leads by 25 points.
Nightlife. Cardiff 50, Florianopolis 60: Florianopolis leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cardiff 70, Florianopolis 78: Florianopolis leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Cardiff 72, Florianopolis 50: Cardiff leads by 22 points.
Good for families. Cardiff 58, Florianopolis 60: Florianopolis leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Cardiff 66, Florianopolis 28: Cardiff leads by 38 points.
Shopping & style. Cardiff 50, Florianopolis 33: Cardiff leads by 17 points.
Affordability. Cardiff 46, Florianopolis 60: Florianopolis leads by 14 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cardiff 57, Florianopolis 28: Cardiff leads by 29 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cardiff 27, Florianopolis 45: Florianopolis leads by 18 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cardiff and Florianopolis.

Your match

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

Too close to call, level with your weighting

Cardiff
52match

Wins on getting around and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Florianopolis
52match

Wins on beaches and wellness 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

Florianopolis in July

21 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
91 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
11 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
CardiffFlorianopolis

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). Florianopolis: 1991-2020 normals, Florianopolis (1.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCardiffFlorianopolis
Official languageEnglishPortuguese
CurrencyPound Sterling (GBP)Brazilian Real (BRL)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzCN60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC-3
Emergency number112 or 999Police 190, ambulance 192, fire 193
Elevation41 m3 m
Main airportCardiff International Airport (CWL)15 km from centre30 non-stop destinationsHercílio Luz International Airport (FLN)9 km from centre21 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year8 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureCardiffFlorianopolis
City population383,536587,486
People per km²2,734870
Museums within 10 km911
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone7 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Cardiff or Florianopolis 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.