VacationSelector
Cardiff Castle, Cardiff
CardiffCardiff Castle
The Blue Mosque, Istanbul
IstanbulThe Blue Mosque

Photos: Cardiff by Tevfik Teker, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Istanbul by AXP Photography, Pexels License.

Cardiff or Istanbul?

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

  • nature and the outdoors
  • day trips
  • getting around

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

Choose Istanbul for

  • wellness
  • food and drink
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Istanbul’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, Istanbul 45: Istanbul leads by 15 points.
Food & drink. Cardiff 45, Istanbul 87: Istanbul leads by 42 points.
Culture & sights. Cardiff 58, Istanbul 90: Istanbul leads by 32 points.
Nightlife. Cardiff 50, Istanbul 77: Istanbul leads by 27 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cardiff 70, Istanbul 52: Cardiff leads by 18 points.
Day trips. Cardiff 72, Istanbul 55: Cardiff leads by 17 points.
Good for families. Cardiff 58, Istanbul 55: Cardiff leads by 3 points.
Getting around. Cardiff 66, Istanbul 62: Cardiff leads by 4 points.
Shopping & style. Cardiff 50, Istanbul 86: Istanbul leads by 36 points.
Affordability. Cardiff 46, Istanbul 60: Istanbul leads by 14 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cardiff 57, Istanbul 62: Istanbul leads by 5 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cardiff 27, Istanbul 75: Istanbul leads by 48 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cardiff and Istanbul.

Your match

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

Cardiff
52match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and day trips with your weighting.

Istanbul
Best match
67match

Wins on wellness 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

Istanbul in July

30 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
23 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
23 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
CardiffIstanbul

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). Istanbul: 1991-2020 normals, Istanbul / Goztepe (9.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCardiffIstanbul
Official languageEnglishTurkish
CurrencyPound Sterling (GBP)Turkish Lira (TRY)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC+3
Emergency number112 or 999112
Elevation41 m100 m
Main airportCardiff International Airport (CWL)15 km from centre30 non-stop destinationsİstanbul Airport (IST)36 km from centre343 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year8 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureCardiffIstanbul
City population383,53615,655,924
People per km²2,7342,930
Museums within 10 km973
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone3 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Cardiff or Istanbul 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.