VacationSelector
Cardiff Castle, Cardiff
CardiffCardiff Castle
The lighthouse in the Paphos Archaeological Park, Paphos
PaphosThe lighthouse in the Paphos Archaeological Park

Photos: Cardiff by Tevfik Teker, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Paphos by Nikodem Nijaki, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Cardiff or Paphos?

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

  • live music and the arts
  • getting around
  • shopping

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

Choose Paphos for

  • beaches
  • wellness
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Paphos’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, Paphos 76: Paphos leads by 46 points.
Food & drink. Cardiff and Paphos are level on 45.
Culture & sights. Cardiff 58, Paphos 62: Paphos leads by 4 points.
Nightlife. Cardiff 50, Paphos 38: Cardiff leads by 12 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cardiff and Paphos are level on 70.
Day trips. Cardiff 72, Paphos 64: Cardiff leads by 8 points.
Good for families. Cardiff 58, Paphos 68: Paphos leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Cardiff 66, Paphos 40: Cardiff leads by 26 points.
Shopping & style. Cardiff 50, Paphos 25: Cardiff leads by 25 points.
Affordability. Cardiff 46, Paphos 52: Paphos leads by 6 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cardiff 57, Paphos 22: Cardiff leads by 35 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cardiff 27, Paphos 42: Paphos leads by 15 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cardiff and Paphos.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Cardiff
52match

Wins on live music and the arts and getting around with your weighting.

Paphos
50match

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

Paphos in July

30 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
27 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
CardiffPaphos

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.

Paphos 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). Paphos: 1991-2020 normals, Paphos Airport (8.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCardiffPaphos
Official languageEnglishTurkish, Greek, Modern Greek
CurrencyPound Sterling (GBP)Euro (EUR)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzG240 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC+2, UTC+3 in summer
Emergency number112 or 999112
Elevation41 m72 m
Main airportCardiff International Airport (CWL)15 km from centre30 non-stop destinationsPaphos International Airport (PFO)8 km from centre58 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year8 days17 days

By the numbers

MeasureCardiffPaphos
City population383,53635,961
People per km²2,7341,987
Museums within 10 km94
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km12
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone6 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Cardiff or Paphos 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.