VacationSelector
Cardiff Castle, Cardiff
CardiffCardiff Castle
The golden Dome of the Rock, Jerusalem
JerusalemThe golden Dome of the Rock

Photos: Cardiff by Tevfik Teker, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Jerusalem by Yasir Gürbüz, Pexels License.

Cardiff or Jerusalem?

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

  • prices
  • live music and the arts
  • nightlife

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

Choose Jerusalem for

  • culture and sights
  • food and drink
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Jerusalem’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, Jerusalem 40: Jerusalem leads by 10 points.
Food & drink. Cardiff 45, Jerusalem 66: Jerusalem leads by 21 points.
Culture & sights. Cardiff 58, Jerusalem 92: Jerusalem leads by 34 points.
Nightlife. Cardiff 50, Jerusalem 38: Cardiff leads by 12 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cardiff 70, Jerusalem 60: Cardiff leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Cardiff 72, Jerusalem 80: Jerusalem leads by 8 points.
Good for families. Cardiff 58, Jerusalem 52: Cardiff leads by 6 points.
Getting around. Cardiff 66, Jerusalem 55: Cardiff leads by 11 points.
Shopping & style. Cardiff 50, Jerusalem 48: Cardiff leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Cardiff 46, Jerusalem 20: Cardiff leads by 26 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cardiff 57, Jerusalem 40: Cardiff leads by 17 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cardiff 27, Jerusalem 42: Jerusalem leads by 15 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cardiff and Jerusalem.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Cardiff
52match

Wins on prices and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Jerusalem
53match

Wins on culture and sights 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

Jerusalem in July

30 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
27 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
CardiffJerusalem

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.

Jerusalem 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). Jerusalem: 1991-2020 normals, Jerusalem (1.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCardiffJerusalem
Official languageEnglishHebrew
CurrencyPound Sterling (GBP)New Israeli Sheqel (ILS)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzCHM230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC+2, UTC+3 in summer
Emergency number112 or 999Police 100, fire 102
Elevation41 m754 m
Main airportCardiff International Airport (CWL)15 km from centre30 non-stop destinationsBen Gurion International Airport (TLV)42 km from centre111 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year8 days-

By the numbers

MeasureCardiffJerusalem
City population383,5361,050,151
People per km²2,7348,374
Museums within 10 km969
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km17
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone7 months

Where else could you go?

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