VacationSelector
Cardiff Castle, Cardiff
CardiffCardiff Castle
The Manila Central Post Office on the Pasig, Manila
ManilaThe Manila Central Post Office on the Pasig

Photos: Cardiff by Tevfik Teker, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Manila by Kenneth Surillo, Pexels License.

Cardiff or Manila?

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

  • getting around
  • nature and the outdoors
  • day trips

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

Choose Manila for

  • prices
  • food and drink
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Manila’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, Manila 12: Cardiff leads by 18 points.
Food & drink. Cardiff 45, Manila 64: Manila leads by 19 points.
Culture & sights. Cardiff 58, Manila 54: Cardiff leads by 4 points.
Nightlife. Cardiff 50, Manila 64: Manila leads by 14 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cardiff 70, Manila 40: Cardiff leads by 30 points.
Day trips. Cardiff 72, Manila 42: Cardiff leads by 30 points.
Good for families. Cardiff 58, Manila 42: Cardiff leads by 16 points.
Getting around. Cardiff 66, Manila 26: Cardiff leads by 40 points.
Shopping & style. Cardiff 50, Manila 60: Manila leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Cardiff 46, Manila 77: Manila leads by 31 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cardiff 57, Manila 50: Cardiff leads by 7 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cardiff 27, Manila 40: Manila leads by 13 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cardiff and Manila.

Your match

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

Cardiff
Best match
52match

Wins on getting around and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Manila
48match

Wins on prices 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

Manila in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
487 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0200400600JFMAMJJASOND
CardiffManila

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). Manila: 1991-2020 normals, Science Garden (6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCardiffManila
Official languageEnglishEnglish, Filipino, Taglish
CurrencyPound Sterling (GBP)Philippine Peso (PHP)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzABC220 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC+8
Emergency number112 or 999911
Elevation41 m9 m
Main airportCardiff International Airport (CWL)15 km from centre30 non-stop destinationsNinoy Aquino International Airport (MNL)11 km from centre90 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year8 days18 days

By the numbers

MeasureCardiffManila
City population383,5361,902,590
People per km²2,73476,104
Museums within 10 km927
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone12 months

Where else could you go?

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