Cardiff or Liverpool?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Has no clear advantage with the weighting you have chosen.
Wins on good for families and beaches & swimming 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 museums are the point of the trip: about three times as many as Liverpool has, plus more sun across the year and a marginally warmer summer sea.
Choose Liverpool if you want beaches, late nights or days out with children: many more beaches within reach, roughly twice as many bars and clubs, and far more attractions near the centre.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Liverpool leads by 14 points.14
| Cardiff | Liverpool | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 46 | 60 |
| Swim season months | 0 | 0 |
| Beaches 10 km | 8 | 34 |
| Coast distance | 2 km | 2 km |
| Water distance | 2 km | 2 km |
Places to eat. Cardiff and Liverpool are level on 60.
| Cardiff | Liverpool | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 60 | 60 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 541 | 542 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 32 | 32 |
Museums & heritage. Liverpool leads by 4 points.4
| Cardiff | Liverpool | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 39 | 43 |
| Museums within 10 km | 61 | 23 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 6 | 12 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 10 | 52 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 1 | 2 |
Nightlife. Liverpool leads by 13 points.13
| Cardiff | Liverpool | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 48 | 61 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 536 | 977 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 395 | 651 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 74 | 67 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 35 | 79 |
Nature & day trips. Liverpool leads by 8 points.8
| Cardiff | Liverpool | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 50 | 58 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 18 | — |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 15 | 0 |
| Land share of disc % | 68 | 60 |
| Park area within 2 km | 88 hectares | 81 hectares |
Good for families. Liverpool leads by 26 points.26
| Cardiff | Liverpool | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 32 | 58 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 4 | 25 |
| Park area within 2 km | 88 hectares | 81 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 2 | 3 |
Sights concentration. Liverpool leads by 5 points.5
| Cardiff | Liverpool | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 45 | 50 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 51 | 68 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Cardiff and Liverpool are level on 54.
| Cardiff | Liverpool | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 54 | 54 |
| Price level global | 84.9 | 84.9 |
| Daily budget | — | — |
Year-round weather. Cardiff and Liverpool are level on 54.
| Cardiff | Liverpool | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 54 | 54 |
| Monthly daytime high | 7.7 °C to 20.2 °C | 7.2 °C to 20.8 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 49 mm to 87 mm | 51 mm to 95 mm |
| Dry months | 0 | 0 |
Where they differ
Cardiff's draw is its museums: about three times as many as Liverpool's, in a city that gets more sun across the year. Its sea is marginally warmer at the peak, 18°C in August against 17°C.
Liverpool has far more coast in reach, 34 beaches against Cardiff's 8, and roughly twice as many bars and twice as many nightclubs. For families it is clearly stronger: many more attractions near the centre, one more theme park within reach and a little more to walk to.
Where they are alike
On eating out they are level: a similar number of restaurants near the centre in each, and a similar spread of kitchens.
The weather is much the same too, daytime highs of about 8-20°C across the year in both, and neither gets a month drier than 40mm. Green space near the centre is comparable, so a park afternoon or a walk out of town works equally well from either. Both have UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach.
Which traveller are you?
Museum-minded visitors should pick Cardiff, which has roughly three times as many. Liverpool answers with museums packed tightly around the centre and 2 UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach, so a heritage weekend works either way.
Families are better served in Liverpool: many more attractions near the centre, one more theme park within reach, and 34 beaches to choose from when the weather holds. Park space is similar, so that is not the deciding factor.
Anyone planning late nights wants Liverpool, with about twice as many bars and twice as many nightclubs, most of them near the centre, and a slightly denser core of things to walk between.
What the numbers don't tell you
Ignore any sense that one of these is the better-priced trip. The value figure is a national price level, identical for both by construction, and no daily spend exists here for either city, so no cost comparison between them is possible.
The beach count needs care too. Liverpool's larger number of beaches says how much coast is within reach, not how pleasant the water is: neither city has a month of sea at 21°C or more, peaking at 17-18°C in August. Nor does either get a month at 40mm or less, so rain is possible whenever you go.
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). Liverpool: 1991-2020 normals, Manchester Airport (47.4 km from centre).
Cardiff edges the shoulder months. September stays at 18°C with 54mm of rain against Liverpool's 71mm, and October is drier too, 87mm against 95mm. Its sea peaks at 18°C in August.
Liverpool is at its best in July, the warmest month in either city at 21°C, and one of its drier months at 60mm. Late autumn is where it suffers: November and December both run near 85mm, wetter than Cardiff in the same weeks.
Getting there
| Flying from | Cardiff | Liverpool |
|---|---|---|
| Puerto del RosarioFUE | 3 h 50 m no fares BRS · 34 km | 4 h 5 m no fares LPL · 12 km |
| PalmaPMI | 2 h 20 m no fares BRS · 34 km | 2 h 30 m no fares LPL · 12 km |
| ArrecifeACE | 3 h 45 m no fares BRS · 34 km | 4 h 0 m no fares LPL · 12 km |
| KerkyraCFU | 3 h 15 m no fares BRS · 34 km | 3 h 20 m no fares LPL · 12 km |
| AntalyaAYT | 4 h 20 m no fares BRS · 34 km | 4 h 25 m no fares LPL · 12 km |
| Las PalmasLPA | 4 h 0 m no fares BRS · 34 km | 4 h 10 m no fares LPL · 12 km |
| BridgetownBGI | 8 h 25 m no fares CWL · 15 km | 8 h 35 m no fares MAN · 48 km |
| MarrakechRAK | 3 h 20 m no fares BRS · 34 km | 3 h 35 m no fares LPL · 12 km |
| TorontoYYZ, YHM, YTZ | 7 h 10 m no fares CWL · 15 km | 7 h 10 m no fares MAN · 48 km |
| New DelhiDEL | 8 h 40 m no fares BHX · 146 km | 8 h 40 m no fares MAN · 48 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 | Liverpool |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | English | English |
| Currency | Pound Sterling (GBP) | Pound Sterling (GBP) |
| 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 or 999 |
| Elevation | 41 m | 70 m |
| Main airport | Cardiff International Airport (CWL)15 km from centre8 non-stop destinations | Liverpool John Lennon Airport (LPL)12 km from centre74 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 8 days | 8 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Cardiff | Liverpool |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 383,536 | 513,441 |
| People per km² | 2,734 | 4,592 |
| Museums within 10 km | 9 | 31 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 1 | 2 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 55 | 49 |
| 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 Liverpool somewhere new.