VacationSelector
Cardiff Castle, Cardiff
CardiffCardiff Castle
The Römer, the old city hall, Frankfurt
FrankfurtThe Römer, the old city hall

Photos: Cardiff by Tevfik Teker, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Frankfurt by Thomas Wolf, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE, cropped.

Cardiff or Frankfurt?

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
  • prices

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

Choose Frankfurt for

  • wellness
  • day trips
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Frankfurt’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, Frankfurt 8: Cardiff leads by 22 points.
Food & drink. Cardiff 45, Frankfurt 52: Frankfurt leads by 7 points.
Culture & sights. Cardiff 58, Frankfurt 60: Frankfurt leads by 2 points.
Nightlife. Cardiff 50, Frankfurt 52: Frankfurt leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cardiff 70, Frankfurt 58: Cardiff leads by 12 points.
Day trips. Cardiff 72, Frankfurt 86: Frankfurt leads by 14 points.
Good for families. Cardiff 58, Frankfurt 62: Frankfurt leads by 4 points.
Getting around. Cardiff 66, Frankfurt 78: Frankfurt leads by 12 points.
Shopping & style. Cardiff 50, Frankfurt 56: Frankfurt leads by 6 points.
Affordability. Cardiff 46, Frankfurt 38: Cardiff leads by 8 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cardiff 57, Frankfurt 68: Frankfurt leads by 11 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cardiff 27, Frankfurt 52: Frankfurt leads by 25 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cardiff and Frankfurt.

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.

Frankfurt
Best match
56match

Wins on wellness and day trips 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

Frankfurt in July

26 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
68 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
No seasea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
CardiffFrankfurt

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). Frankfurt: 1991-2020 normals, Frankfurt Westend (2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCardiffFrankfurt
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 m101 m
Main airportCardiff International Airport (CWL)15 km from centre30 non-stop destinationsFrankfurt Main Airport (FRA)13 km from centre281 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year8 days10 days

By the numbers

MeasureCardiffFrankfurt
City population383,536760,656
People per km²2,7343,063
Museums within 10 km953
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km14
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 Frankfurt 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.