VacationSelector
Cardiff Castle, Cardiff
CardiffCardiff Castle
The Sanctuary of Truth by the sea, Pattaya
PattayaThe Sanctuary of Truth by the sea

Photos: Cardiff by Tevfik Teker, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Pattaya by Matrix, Pexels License.

Cardiff or Pattaya?

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

  • nature and the outdoors
  • getting around
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Pattaya for

  • prices
  • beaches
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Pattaya’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, Pattaya 66: Pattaya leads by 36 points.
Food & drink. Cardiff 45, Pattaya 58: Pattaya leads by 13 points.
Culture & sights. Cardiff 58, Pattaya 30: Cardiff leads by 28 points.
Nightlife. Cardiff 50, Pattaya 76: Pattaya leads by 26 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cardiff 70, Pattaya 40: Cardiff leads by 30 points.
Day trips. Cardiff 72, Pattaya 52: Cardiff leads by 20 points.
Good for families. Cardiff 58, Pattaya 55: Cardiff leads by 3 points.
Getting around. Cardiff 66, Pattaya 36: Cardiff leads by 30 points.
Shopping & style. Cardiff 50, Pattaya 42: Cardiff leads by 8 points.
Affordability. Cardiff 46, Pattaya 84: Pattaya leads by 38 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cardiff 57, Pattaya 30: Cardiff leads by 27 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cardiff 27, Pattaya 58: Pattaya leads by 31 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cardiff and Pattaya.

Your match

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

Too close to call, level with your weighting

Cardiff
52match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and getting around with your weighting.

Pattaya
52match

Wins on prices and beaches 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

Pattaya in July

32 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
102 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
30 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
CardiffPattaya

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.

Pattaya's temperatures are measured 31 km from the centre, at Sattahip.

Pattaya 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.

Pattaya's sunshine is measured 86 km from the centre, at Bangna Agromet / Ban Khlong Samrong.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cardiff: 1991-2020 normals, Cardiff-Wales Airport (14.9 km from centre). Pattaya: 1971-2000 (sunshine 1961-1990, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Sattahip (31.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCardiffPattaya
Official languageEnglishThai
CurrencyPound Sterling (GBP)Baht (THB)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzABCF220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC+7
Emergency number112 or 999Police 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199
Elevation41 m35 m
Main airportCardiff International Airport (CWL)15 km from centre30 non-stop destinationsSuvarnabhumi Airport (BKK)83 km from centre150 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year8 days-

By the numbers

MeasureCardiffPattaya
City population383,536119,532
People per km²2,734-
Museums within 10 km90
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 Pattaya 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. Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national sources. 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.