VacationSelector
Cardiff Castle, Cardiff
CardiffCardiff Castle
The Opera House on the fjord, Oslo
OsloThe Opera House on the fjord

Photos: Cardiff by Tevfik Teker, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Oslo by Beata May, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Cardiff or Oslo?

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
  • day trips
  • nightlife

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

Choose Oslo for

  • wellness
  • getting around
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Oslo’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, Oslo 36: Oslo leads by 6 points.
Food & drink. Cardiff 45, Oslo 55: Oslo leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. Cardiff 58, Oslo 66: Oslo leads by 8 points.
Nightlife. Cardiff 50, Oslo 48: Cardiff leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cardiff 70, Oslo 82: Oslo leads by 12 points.
Day trips. Cardiff 72, Oslo 52: Cardiff leads by 20 points.
Good for families. Cardiff 58, Oslo 63: Oslo leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Cardiff 66, Oslo 85: Oslo leads by 19 points.
Shopping & style. Cardiff and Oslo are level on 50.
Affordability. Cardiff 46, Oslo 14: Cardiff leads by 32 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cardiff 57, Oslo 62: Oslo leads by 5 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cardiff 27, Oslo 60: Oslo leads by 33 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cardiff and Oslo.

Your match

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

Cardiff
52match

Wins on prices and day trips with your weighting.

Oslo
Best match
56match

Wins on wellness and getting around 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

Oslo in July

23 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
86 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
18 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°5°10°15°20°25°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
CardiffOslo

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). Oslo: 1991-2020 normals, Oslo-Blindern (4.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCardiffOslo
Official languageEnglishNorwegian, Nynorsk, Bokmål, Sámi
CurrencyPound Sterling (GBP)Norwegian Krone (NOK)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112 or 999Police 112, ambulance 113, fire 110
Elevation41 m23 m
Main airportCardiff International Airport (CWL)15 km from centre30 non-stop destinationsOslo-Gardermoen International Airport (OSL)37 km from centre147 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year8 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureCardiffOslo
City population383,536717,710
People per km²2,734-
Museums within 10 km960
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °CNoneNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Cardiff or Oslo 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.