VacationSelector
Cardiff Castle, Cardiff
CardiffCardiff Castle
The Aare at Unterseen, Interlaken, Interlaken
InterlakenThe Aare at Unterseen, Interlaken

Photos: Cardiff by Tevfik Teker, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Interlaken by Roy Egloff, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Cardiff or Interlaken?

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

  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts
  • prices

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

Choose Interlaken for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • families
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Interlaken’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 and Interlaken are level on 30.
Food & drink. Cardiff 45, Interlaken 25: Cardiff leads by 20 points.
Culture & sights. Cardiff 58, Interlaken 8: Cardiff leads by 50 points.
Nightlife. Cardiff 50, Interlaken 15: Cardiff leads by 35 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cardiff 70, Interlaken 97: Interlaken leads by 27 points.
Day trips. Cardiff 72, Interlaken 78: Interlaken leads by 6 points.
Good for families. Cardiff 58, Interlaken 72: Interlaken leads by 14 points.
Getting around. Cardiff 66, Interlaken 80: Interlaken leads by 14 points.
Shopping & style. Cardiff 50, Interlaken 22: Cardiff leads by 28 points.
Affordability. Cardiff 46, Interlaken 8: Cardiff leads by 38 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cardiff 57, Interlaken 15: Cardiff leads by 42 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cardiff 27, Interlaken 40: Interlaken leads by 13 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cardiff and Interlaken.

Your match

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

Cardiff
Best match
52match

Wins on culture and sights and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Interlaken
41match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and families 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

Interlaken in July

24 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
126 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°5°10°15°20°25°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
CardiffInterlaken

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.

Interlaken 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.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cardiff: 1991-2020 normals, Cardiff-Wales Airport (14.9 km from centre). Interlaken: 2005-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Meiringen / Unterbach (19.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCardiffInterlaken
Official languageEnglishFrench, German, Italian, Romansh
CurrencyPound Sterling (GBP)Swiss Franc (CHF)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzCJ230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112 or 999112
Elevation41 m571 m
Main airportCardiff International Airport (CWL)15 km from centre30 non-stop destinationsZürich Airport (ZRH)100 km from centre226 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year8 days10 days

By the numbers

MeasureCardiffInterlaken
City population383,5366,123
People per km²2,7341,424
Museums within 10 km93
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km12
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 Interlaken 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.