VacationSelector
Cardiff Castle, Cardiff
CardiffCardiff Castle
Palms on Waikiki Beach, Honolulu
HonoluluPalms on Waikiki Beach

Photos: Cardiff by Tevfik Teker, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Honolulu by Jess Loiterton, Pexels License.

Cardiff or Honolulu?

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

  • day trips
  • prices
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Honolulu for

  • beaches
  • food and drink
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Honolulu’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, Honolulu 91: Honolulu leads by 61 points.
Food & drink. Cardiff 45, Honolulu 70: Honolulu leads by 25 points.
Culture & sights. Cardiff 58, Honolulu 55: Cardiff leads by 3 points.
Nightlife. Cardiff 50, Honolulu 45: Cardiff leads by 5 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cardiff 70, Honolulu 88: Honolulu leads by 18 points.
Day trips. Cardiff 72, Honolulu 38: Cardiff leads by 34 points.
Good for families. Cardiff 58, Honolulu 80: Honolulu leads by 22 points.
Getting around. Cardiff 66, Honolulu 52: Cardiff leads by 14 points.
Shopping & style. Cardiff 50, Honolulu 60: Honolulu leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Cardiff 46, Honolulu 15: Cardiff leads by 31 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cardiff 57, Honolulu 40: Cardiff leads by 17 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cardiff 27, Honolulu 50: Honolulu leads by 23 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cardiff and Honolulu.

Your match

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

Cardiff
52match

Wins on day trips and prices with your weighting.

Honolulu
Best match
57match

Wins on beaches and food and drink 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

Honolulu in July

31 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
13 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
26 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
CardiffHonolulu

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). Honolulu: 1991-2020 normals, Honolulu International Airport (10.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCardiffHonolulu
Official languageEnglish-
CurrencyPound Sterling (GBP)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC-10
Emergency number112 or 999911
Elevation41 m12 m
Main airportCardiff International Airport (CWL)15 km from centre30 non-stop destinationsDaniel K. Inouye International Airport (HNL)7 km from centre56 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year8 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureCardiffHonolulu
City population383,536350,964
People per km²2,7341,981
Museums within 10 km912
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 Honolulu 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.