Cardiff or Killarney?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Wins on nightlife and nature & day trips with your weighting.
Wins on value for money with your weighting.
What matters to you?
Pick a travel style or drag the sliders. The match scores above update as you do.
The verdict
Choose Cardiff if you want a city with museums, a wide choice of restaurants and places to drink, parks, and the coast 2km from the centre with 8 beaches nearby.
Choose Killarney if you want a town of 14,400 people, quiet evenings and mild winters, and accept heavy rain with little in the way of sights or eating out.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Cardiff leads by 23 points.23
| Cardiff | Killarney | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 46 | 23 |
| Swim season months | 0 | 0 |
| Beaches 10 km | 8 | 6 |
| Coast distance | 2 km | 18 km |
| Water distance | 2 km | 18 km |
Places to eat. Cardiff leads by 38 points.38
| Cardiff | Killarney | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 60 | 22 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 541 | 65 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 32 | 15 |
Museums & heritage. Cardiff leads by 29 points.29
| Cardiff | Killarney | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 39 | 10 |
| Museums within 10 km | 61 | 0 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 6 | 0 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 10 | — |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 1 | 0 |
Nightlife. Cardiff leads by 45 points.45
| Cardiff | Killarney | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 48 | 3 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 536 | 72 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 395 | 57 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 74 | 79 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 35 | 0 |
Nature & day trips. Cardiff leads by 41 points.41
| Cardiff | Killarney | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 50 | 9 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 18 | 1 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 15 | 0 |
| Land share of disc % | 68 | 86 |
| Park area within 2 km | 88 hectares | 13 hectares |
Good for families. Cardiff leads by 24 points.24
| Cardiff | Killarney | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 32 | 8 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 4 | 4 |
| Park area within 2 km | 88 hectares | 13 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 2 | 0 |
Sights concentration. Cardiff leads by 35 points.35
| Cardiff | Killarney | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 45 | 10 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 51 | 7 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Killarney leads by 3 points.3
| Cardiff | Killarney | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 54 | 57 |
| Price level global | 84.9 | 80.2 |
| Daily budget | — | €187 |
Year-round weather. Cardiff leads by 6 points.6
| Cardiff | Killarney | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 54 | 48 |
| Monthly daytime high | 7.7 °C to 20.2 °C | 9.9 °C to 18 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 49 mm to 87 mm | 91 mm to 187 mm |
| Dry months | 0 | 0 |
Where they differ
Cardiff has many times as many restaurants near the centre as Killarney, and a much wider range of kitchens. It also has many times as many places to drink, plus nightclubs, which Killarney lacks entirely. For days out, 18% of the land around Cardiff is protected against 1% around Killarney, and it has far more park space near the centre.
Killarney's edge is narrow: it rates marginally better on value, and its winters are milder, with January highs of 10°C against Cardiff's 8°C.
Where they are alike
On value the two sit in much the same place, close enough that it is unlikely to decide the trip.
Weather is close as well: neither sees a month at 40mm of rain or less, and summer highs are similar, 20°C in Cardiff and 18°C in Killarney. Both have beaches within reach without warm swimming, since neither has a month with the sea at 21°C or more.
Which traveller are you?
A weekend traveller after museums, eating out and a night afterwards should take Cardiff: it has museums where Killarney has none, many times the choice of kitchens, and nightclubs Killarney does not have.
Families are better served in Cardiff too, with 2 theme parks within reach, far more park space near the centre, and the sea 2km away rather than 18km, which matters with young children.
Killarney suits someone who wants a small base and quiet evenings: a town of 14,400 people and mild winter highs of 10°C, with little pull towards sights, restaurants or late nights.
What the numbers don't tell you
No cost comparison is possible here. The dataset carries a daily budget for Killarney, about €187, and none at all for Cardiff, so nothing on this page tells you which is the cheaper trip. The value figures rest on a different measure and should not be read as prices.
Cardiff's lead on beaches is about access rather than swimming: the coast is 2km from the centre, but the sea never reaches 21°C in either place, and the warmest water comes only in August. Killarney's mild winter highs come with the year's heaviest rain, so a mild month there is not a comfortable one outdoors.
When should you go?
The figures behind each month. Each row is shaded against that destination's own year, so the deepest cell is its best month for that measure and the palest its weakest. Shades are not comparable between the two rows.
Temperature and rainfall are thirty-year climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cardiff: 1991-2020 normals, Cardiff-Wales Airport (14.9 km from centre). Killarney: 1991-2020 normals, Valentia Observatory (52.7 km from centre).
Cardiff is the stronger summer choice, from June to September, with highs reaching 20°C and the sea at 18°C in August. Summer rain stays in the 54-66mm range, while autumn and early winter run 79-87mm.
Killarney's best window is narrower, July and August at 18°C with the sea at 16°C. It is far wetter all year: the driest month, May, still brings 91mm, and the wettest months approach 187mm, so a winter visit means rain rather than cold.
Getting there
| Flying from | Cardiff | Killarney |
|---|---|---|
| AmsterdamAMS | 1 h 20 m no fares CWL · 15 km | 1 h 45 m no fares ORK · 74 km |
| MalagaAGP | 2 h 35 m no fares CWL · 15 km | 2 h 40 m no fares ORK · 74 km |
| ArrecifeACE | 3 h 45 m no fares BRS · 34 km | 3 h 40 m no fares ORK · 74 km |
| PalmaPMI | 2 h 20 m no fares BRS · 34 km | 2 h 35 m no fares ORK · 74 km |
| DublinDUB | 1 h 0 m no fares CWL · 15 km | 1 h 0 m no fares KIR · 14 km |
| ReusREU | 2 h 5 m no fares BRS · 34 km | 2 h 20 m no fares ORK · 74 km |
| EdinburghEDI | 1 h 15 m no fares BRS · 34 km | 1 h 20 m no fares ORK · 74 km |
| Las PalmasLPA | 4 h 0 m no fares BRS · 34 km | 3 h 50 m no fares ORK · 74 km |
| TenerifeTFS, TFN | 4 h 0 m no fares CWL · 15 km | 3 h 55 m no fares ORK · 74 km |
| Puerto del RosarioFUE | 3 h 50 m no fares BRS · 34 km | 3 h 50 m no fares SNN · 82 km |
The busiest departure cities for these two, with a place kept for each other part of the world. Busiest means arriving passengers where an official count exists, and where none does, the number of non-stop services flown: official route statistics are published by the European reporting countries and by nobody else, so a table ranked on them alone would offer a reader in New York or Tokyo ten European cities. Flying times are estimated from the distance between airports, and every row is a city flown non-stop to both. Where the typical offer connects anyway, the stops are shown. Under each figure is the airport the flight lands at and how far that is from the centre, because the nearest airport is not always the one a route is flown to. Where both columns name the same airport it is one flight, and the difference between the two is the distance printed beside it.
Before you go
| Measure | Cardiff | Killarney |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | English | English, Irish |
| Currency | Pound Sterling (GBP) | Euro (EUR) |
| Sockets | G230 V, 50 Hz | G230 V, 50 Hz |
| Driving side | Left | Left |
| Time zone | UTC, UTC+1 in summer | UTC, UTC+1 in summer |
| Emergency number | 112 or 999 | 112 |
| Elevation | 41 m | 50 m |
| Main airport | Cardiff International Airport (CWL)15 km from centre8 non-stop destinations | Kerry Airport (KIR)14 km from centre10 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 8 days | 11 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Cardiff | Killarney |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 383,536 | 14,412 |
| People per km² | 2,734 | – |
| Museums within 10 km | 9 | 1 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 1 | 0 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 55 | 19 |
| Swim season, months above 21 °C | None | None |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Cardiff or Killarney somewhere new.