VacationSelector
Cardiff Castle, Cardiff
CardiffCardiff Castle
The skyline and yachts on the canals, Fort Lauderdale
Fort LauderdaleThe skyline and yachts on the canals

Photos: Cardiff by Tevfik Teker, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Fort Lauderdale by KeanoManu, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Cardiff or Fort Lauderdale?

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
  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Fort Lauderdale for

  • beaches
  • wellness
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Fort Lauderdale’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, Fort Lauderdale 88: Fort Lauderdale leads by 58 points.
Food & drink. Cardiff 45, Fort Lauderdale 47: Fort Lauderdale leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Cardiff 58, Fort Lauderdale 28: Cardiff leads by 30 points.
Nightlife. Cardiff 50, Fort Lauderdale 52: Fort Lauderdale leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cardiff 70, Fort Lauderdale 62: Cardiff leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Cardiff 72, Fort Lauderdale 58: Cardiff leads by 14 points.
Good for families. Cardiff 58, Fort Lauderdale 66: Fort Lauderdale leads by 8 points.
Getting around. Cardiff 66, Fort Lauderdale 32: Cardiff leads by 34 points.
Shopping & style. Cardiff 50, Fort Lauderdale 52: Fort Lauderdale leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Cardiff 46, Fort Lauderdale 32: Cardiff leads by 14 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cardiff 57, Fort Lauderdale 42: Cardiff leads by 15 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cardiff 27, Fort Lauderdale 40: Fort Lauderdale leads by 13 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cardiff and Fort Lauderdale.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Cardiff
52match

Wins on getting around and culture and sights with your weighting.

Fort Lauderdale
50match

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

Fort Lauderdale in July

32 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
166 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
29 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
CardiffFort Lauderdale

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). Fort Lauderdale: 1991-2020 normals, Fort Lauderdale (7.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCardiffFort Lauderdale
Official languageEnglish-
CurrencyPound Sterling (GBP)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number112 or 999911
Elevation41 m11 m
Main airportCardiff International Airport (CWL)15 km from centre30 non-stop destinationsFort Lauderdale Hollywood International Airport (FLL)7 km from centre136 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year8 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureCardiffFort Lauderdale
City population383,536182,760
People per km²2,7341,829
Museums within 10 km96
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 Fort Lauderdale 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.