VacationSelector
Cardiff Castle, Cardiff
CardiffCardiff Castle
The Frauenkirche towers and the Mariensäule, Munich
MunichThe Frauenkirche towers and the Mariensäule

Photos: Cardiff by Tevfik Teker, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Munich by 0xd1ma, Pexels License.

Cardiff or Munich?

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

  • prices
  • beaches

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

Choose Munich for

  • wellness
  • live music and the arts
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Munich’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, Munich 28: Cardiff leads by 2 points.
Food & drink. Cardiff 45, Munich 62: Munich leads by 17 points.
Culture & sights. Cardiff 58, Munich 79: Munich leads by 21 points.
Nightlife. Cardiff 50, Munich 56: Munich leads by 6 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cardiff 70, Munich 82: Munich leads by 12 points.
Day trips. Cardiff 72, Munich 86: Munich leads by 14 points.
Good for families. Cardiff 58, Munich 78: Munich leads by 20 points.
Getting around. Cardiff 66, Munich 86: Munich leads by 20 points.
Shopping & style. Cardiff 50, Munich 72: Munich leads by 22 points.
Affordability. Cardiff 46, Munich 32: Cardiff leads by 14 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cardiff 57, Munich 84: Munich leads by 27 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cardiff 27, Munich 62: Munich leads by 35 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cardiff and Munich.

Your match

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

Cardiff
52match

Wins on prices and beaches with your weighting.

Munich
Best match
67match

Wins on wellness and live music and the arts 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

Munich in July

25 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
119 mmrain in the month
8 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
CardiffMunich

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). Munich: 1991-2020 normals, München (1.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCardiffMunich
Official languageEnglishGerman
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 m519 m
Main airportCardiff International Airport (CWL)15 km from centre30 non-stop destinationsMunich Airport (MUC)29 km from centre210 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year8 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureCardiffMunich
City population383,5361,505,036
People per km²2,7344,844
Museums within 10 km974
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
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 Munich 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.