VacationSelector
Cardiff Castle, Cardiff
CardiffCardiff Castle
Botero sculptures on Plaza Botero, Medellin
MedellinBotero sculptures on Plaza Botero

Photos: Cardiff by Tevfik Teker, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Medellin by Steffen Schmitz, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Cardiff or Medellin?

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
  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Medellin for

  • prices
  • nightlife
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Medellin’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, Medellin 5: Cardiff leads by 25 points.
Food & drink. Cardiff 45, Medellin 58: Medellin leads by 13 points.
Culture & sights. Cardiff 58, Medellin 42: Cardiff leads by 16 points.
Nightlife. Cardiff 50, Medellin 76: Medellin leads by 26 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cardiff 70, Medellin 66: Cardiff leads by 4 points.
Day trips. Cardiff 72, Medellin 58: Cardiff leads by 14 points.
Good for families. Cardiff 58, Medellin 50: Cardiff leads by 8 points.
Getting around. Cardiff 66, Medellin 55: Cardiff leads by 11 points.
Shopping & style. Cardiff 50, Medellin 45: Cardiff leads by 5 points.
Affordability. Cardiff 46, Medellin 80: Medellin leads by 34 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cardiff 57, Medellin 42: Cardiff leads by 15 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cardiff 27, Medellin 30: Medellin leads by 3 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cardiff and Medellin.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Cardiff
52match

Wins on beaches and culture and sights with your weighting.

Medellin
51match

Wins on prices and nightlife 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

Medellin in July

29 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
133 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
12 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
CardiffMedellin

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.

Medellin 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.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cardiff: 1991-2020 normals, Cardiff-Wales Airport (14.9 km from centre). Medellin: 1958-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Medellin / Olaya Herrera (5.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCardiffMedellin
Official languageEnglishSpanish
CurrencyPound Sterling (GBP)Colombian Peso (COP)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC-5
Emergency number112 or 999123
Elevation41 m1,405 m
Main airportCardiff International Airport (CWL)15 km from centre30 non-stop destinationsJose Maria Córdova International Airport (MDE)19 km from centre41 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year8 days19 days

By the numbers

MeasureCardiffMedellin
City population383,5362,529,403
People per km²2,7346,644
Museums within 10 km914
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
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 Medellin 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.