VacationSelector
Cardiff Castle, Cardiff
CardiffCardiff Castle
The Metropolitan Cathedral on the Zócalo, Mexico City
Mexico CityThe Metropolitan Cathedral on the Zócalo

Photos: Cardiff by Tevfik Teker, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Mexico City by Oscar Dominguez, Pexels License.

Cardiff or Mexico City?

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
  • nature and the outdoors
  • getting around

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

Choose Mexico City for

  • food and drink
  • culture and sights
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Mexico City’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, Mexico City 5: Cardiff leads by 25 points.
Food & drink. Cardiff 45, Mexico City 90: Mexico City leads by 45 points.
Culture & sights. Cardiff 58, Mexico City 88: Mexico City leads by 30 points.
Nightlife. Cardiff 50, Mexico City 80: Mexico City leads by 30 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cardiff 70, Mexico City 50: Cardiff leads by 20 points.
Day trips. Cardiff 72, Mexico City 75: Mexico City leads by 3 points.
Good for families. Cardiff and Mexico City are level on 58.
Getting around. Cardiff 66, Mexico City 50: Cardiff leads by 16 points.
Shopping & style. Cardiff 50, Mexico City 76: Mexico City leads by 26 points.
Affordability. Cardiff 46, Mexico City 75: Mexico City leads by 29 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cardiff 57, Mexico City 72: Mexico City leads by 15 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cardiff 27, Mexico City 40: Mexico City leads by 13 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cardiff and Mexico City.

Your match

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

Cardiff
52match

Wins on beaches and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Mexico City
Best match
63match

Wins on food and drink and culture and sights 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

Mexico City in July

25 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
176 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
No seasea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
CardiffMexico City

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). Mexico City: 1991-2020 normals, Mexico Central, D. F. (7.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCardiffMexico City
Official languageEnglishSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyPound Sterling (GBP)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC-6
Emergency number112 or 999911
Elevation41 m2,240 m
Main airportCardiff International Airport (CWL)15 km from centre30 non-stop destinationsMexico City Benito Juárez International Airport (MEX)7 km from centre109 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year8 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureCardiffMexico City
City population383,5369,209,944
People per km²2,7346,202
Museums within 10 km9108
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km16
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 Mexico City 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.