Cardiff or London?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Wins on beaches & swimming and nature & day trips with your weighting.
Wins on nightlife and sights concentration 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 small city you can cross on foot, with the coast in reach, sea at 18°C in August and more protected land around it for days out.
Choose London if the trip is built around eating out, museums, late nights and attractions for children, with far more within walking distance of the centre and summer highs of 24°C.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Cardiff leads by 46 points.46
| Cardiff | London | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 46 | 0 |
| Swim season months | 0 | 0 |
| Beaches 10 km | 8 | 47 |
| Coast distance | 2 km | 43 km |
| Water distance | 2 km | — |
Places to eat. London leads by 28 points.28
| Cardiff | London | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 60 | 88 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 541 | 3,317 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 32 | 40 |
Museums & heritage. London leads by 33 points.33
| Cardiff | London | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 39 | 72 |
| Museums within 10 km | 61 | 148 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 6 | 49 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 10 | 33 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 1 | 4 |
Nightlife. London leads by 47 points.47
| Cardiff | London | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 48 | 95 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 536 | 5,327 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 395 | 2,443 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 74 | 46 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 35 | 312 |
Nature & day trips. Cardiff leads by 10 points.10
| Cardiff | London | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 50 | 40 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 18 | 16 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 15 | 14 |
| Land share of disc % | 68 | 97 |
| Park area within 2 km | 88 hectares | 84 hectares |
Good for families. London leads by 43 points.43
| Cardiff | London | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 32 | 75 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 4 | 85 |
| Park area within 2 km | 88 hectares | 84 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 2 | 3 |
Sights concentration. London leads by 44 points.44
| Cardiff | London | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 45 | 89 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 51 | 649 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Cardiff and London are level on 54.
| Cardiff | London | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 54 | 54 |
| Price level global | 84.9 | 84.9 |
| Daily budget | — | — |
Year-round weather. London leads by 9 points.9
| Cardiff | London | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 54 | 63 |
| Monthly daytime high | 7.7 °C to 20.2 °C | 8.2 °C to 23.8 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 49 mm to 87 mm | 38 mm to 67 mm |
| Dry months | 0 | 1 |
Where they differ
Cardiff is where swimming figures at all: the sea reaches 18°C in August, though neither has a month at 21°C or more. Countryside is closer, with 18% of the land around it protected against 16%.
London has many times as many bars and clubs, and far more notable places within walking distance of the centre. Restaurants near the centre run to many times Cardiff's number, across a wider range of kitchens. There are about twice as many museums, and 4 UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach against Cardiff's 1.
Where they are alike
Weather is where they sit closest. Both are coolest in January at 8°C and warmest in July, and each gets around 1,600 hours of sunshine, so neither offers a reliably dry season.
Green space is the other overlap: park space near the centre is much the same in each, and a similar share of the land around both is protected. Day trips out of either start from the same kind of countryside.
Which traveller are you?
Anyone planning a weekend of eating out and late nights should take London: many times as many bars and clubs, restaurants near the centre in far greater number, and a wider range of kitchens.
Families are also better served in London, with many times as many attractions near the centre and 3 theme parks within reach against Cardiff's 2, while park space near the centre is much the same in either.
Walkers and coast-minded travellers should pick Cardiff: 18% of the land around it is protected, the sea reaches 18°C in August, and its drinking places sit close to the centre rather than scattered.
What the numbers don't tell you
Treat the value comparison as empty. Both cities carry the same national price level, identical by construction, and no daily budget figure exists for either. Nothing here tells you which trip costs less, so check accommodation and transport yourself.
A high beach count near London does not put you in the water: neither city has a month with sea at 21°C or more, and Cardiff's own peak is 18°C in August. London's nightlife is spread out too, with about half of its drinking places near the centre against nearly all of Cardiff's, so a late night there can mean travel.
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). London: 1991-2020 normals, London Heathrow Airport (22.5 km from centre).
Cardiff is at its best in July and August, when highs reach 20°C, the sea sits at 17-18°C and rain runs 61-66mm. May and June are drier at 56mm, with highs of 16-18°C. Autumn turns heavy, 87mm in October.
London's summer is warmer and drier, 22-24°C from June to August with 46-53mm of rain, and September still holds 20°C. Its driest stretch is March and April at 38-43mm, with highs of 12-15°C for indoor days.
Getting there
| Flying from | Cardiff | London |
|---|---|---|
| AntalyaAYT | 4 h 20 m no fares BRS · 34 km | 4 h 5 m €144-189 LGW · 40 km |
| PalmaPMI | 2 h 20 m no fares BRS · 34 km | 2 h 10 m €79-116 LGW · 40 km |
| IbizaIBZ | 2 h 20 m no fares BRS · 34 km | 2 h 15 m no fares LGW · 40 km |
| Las PalmasLPA | 4 h 0 m no fares BRS · 34 km | 4 h 5 m no fares LGW · 40 km |
| ArrecifeACE | 3 h 45 m no fares BRS · 34 km | 3 h 50 m no fares LGW · 40 km |
| Puerto del RosarioFUE | 3 h 50 m no fares BRS · 34 km | 3 h 55 m no fares LGW · 40 km |
| MarrakechRAK | 3 h 20 m no fares BRS · 34 km | 3 h 20 m €128-183 1 stop LGW · 40 km |
| New DelhiDEL | 8 h 40 m no fares BHX · 146 km | 8 h 35 m no fares LHR · 23 km |
| BridgetownBGI | 8 h 25 m no fares CWL · 15 km | 8 h 35 m no fares LHR · 23 km |
| TorontoYYZ, YHM, YTZ | 7 h 10 m no fares CWL · 15 km | 7 h 25 m no fares LHR · 23 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. Typical return fares for 2026-08 to 2026-10, cached market data up to 7 days old. The figure is the middle half of the offers found, so a single price means they agreed and a range means they did not; for a typical route that middle half spans about a quarter of the median, and for the least settled routes rather more than the median itself.
Before you go
| Measure | Cardiff | London |
|---|---|---|
| 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 | 4 m |
| Main airport | Cardiff International Airport (CWL)15 km from centre8 non-stop destinations | London Heathrow Airport (LHR)23 km from centre220 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 8 days | 8 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Cardiff | London |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 383,536 | 8,799,728 |
| People per km² | 2,734 | 5,598 |
| Museums within 10 km | 9 | 215 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 1 | 4 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 55 | 116 |
| Swim season, months above 21 °C | None | – |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Cardiff or London somewhere new.