VacationSelector
Cardiff Castle, Cardiff
CardiffCardiff Castle
The Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque, Muscat
MuscatThe Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque

Photos: Cardiff by Tevfik Teker, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Muscat by Alli Khalil, CC BY 4.0, cropped.

Cardiff or Muscat?

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
  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Muscat for

  • beaches
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Muscat’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, Muscat 72: Muscat leads by 42 points.
Food & drink. Cardiff 45, Muscat 44: Cardiff leads by 1 points.
Culture & sights. Cardiff 58, Muscat 55: Cardiff leads by 3 points.
Nightlife. Cardiff 50, Muscat 14: Cardiff leads by 36 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cardiff and Muscat are level on 70.
Day trips. Cardiff 72, Muscat 62: Cardiff leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Cardiff 58, Muscat 52: Cardiff leads by 6 points.
Getting around. Cardiff 66, Muscat 20: Cardiff leads by 46 points.
Shopping & style. Cardiff 50, Muscat 42: Cardiff leads by 8 points.
Affordability. Cardiff 46, Muscat 45: Cardiff leads by 1 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cardiff 57, Muscat 40: Cardiff leads by 17 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cardiff 27, Muscat 55: Muscat leads by 28 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cardiff and Muscat.

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 nightlife with your weighting.

Muscat
48match

Wins on beaches and wellness 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

Muscat in July

33 °Cdaytime high
30 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
31 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
CardiffMuscat

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.

Muscat's sunshine is measured 32 km from the centre, at Seeb, International Airport.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cardiff: 1991-2020 normals, Cardiff-Wales Airport (14.9 km from centre). Muscat: 1991-2020 normals, Qaboos Port (3.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCardiffMuscat
Official languageEnglishArabic
CurrencyPound Sterling (GBP)Rial Omani (OMR)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzCG240 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC+4
Emergency number112 or 999968
Elevation41 m69 m
Main airportCardiff International Airport (CWL)15 km from centre30 non-stop destinationsMuscat International Airport (MCT)31 km from centre83 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year8 days-

By the numbers

MeasureCardiffMuscat
City population383,5361,421,409
People per km²2,734406
Museums within 10 km910
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
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 Muscat 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.