VacationSelector
Cardiff Castle, Cardiff
CardiffCardiff Castle
Sint Servaasbrug over the Maas, Maastricht
MaastrichtSint Servaasbrug over the Maas

Photos: Cardiff by Tevfik Teker, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Maastricht by Michielverbeek, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Cardiff or Maastricht?

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

  • beaches
  • live music and the arts
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Maastricht for

  • wellness
  • food and drink
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Maastricht’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, Maastricht 8: Cardiff leads by 22 points.
Food & drink. Cardiff 45, Maastricht 58: Maastricht leads by 13 points.
Culture & sights. Cardiff 58, Maastricht 60: Maastricht leads by 2 points.
Nightlife. Cardiff 50, Maastricht 42: Cardiff leads by 8 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cardiff 70, Maastricht 58: Cardiff leads by 12 points.
Day trips. Cardiff 72, Maastricht 77: Maastricht leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Cardiff 58, Maastricht 55: Cardiff leads by 3 points.
Getting around. Cardiff 66, Maastricht 74: Maastricht leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. Cardiff 50, Maastricht 60: Maastricht leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Cardiff 46, Maastricht 38: Cardiff leads by 8 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cardiff 57, Maastricht 40: Cardiff leads by 17 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cardiff 27, Maastricht 52: Maastricht leads by 25 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cardiff and Maastricht.

Your match

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

Too close to call, level with your weighting

Cardiff
52match

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

Maastricht
52match

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

Maastricht in July

24 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
73 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
No seasea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°5°10°15°20°25°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
CardiffMaastricht

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). Maastricht: 1991-2020 normals, Maastricht Airport Zuid Limburg (10 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCardiffMaastricht
Official languageEnglishDutch
CurrencyPound Sterling (GBP)Euro (EUR)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112 or 999112
Elevation41 m49 m
Main airportCardiff International Airport (CWL)15 km from centre30 non-stop destinationsMaastricht Aachen Airport (MST)9 km from centre5 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year8 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureCardiffMaastricht
City population383,536120,227
People per km²2,7342,000
Museums within 10 km921
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km15
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone-

Where else could you go?

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