VacationSelector
Cardiff Castle, Cardiff
CardiffCardiff Castle
The city from Hallgrímskirkja, Reykjavik
ReykjavikThe city from Hallgrímskirkja

Photos: Cardiff by Tevfik Teker, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Reykjavik by Atlantic Ambience, Pexels License.

Cardiff or Reykjavik?

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
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Reykjavik for

  • wellness
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Reykjavik’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, Reykjavik 12: Cardiff leads by 18 points.
Food & drink. Cardiff 45, Reykjavik 42: Cardiff leads by 3 points.
Culture & sights. Cardiff 58, Reykjavik 25: Cardiff leads by 33 points.
Nightlife. Cardiff 50, Reykjavik 45: Cardiff leads by 5 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cardiff 70, Reykjavik 92: Reykjavik leads by 22 points.
Day trips. Cardiff 72, Reykjavik 35: Cardiff leads by 37 points.
Good for families. Cardiff 58, Reykjavik 55: Cardiff leads by 3 points.
Getting around. Cardiff 66, Reykjavik 55: Cardiff leads by 11 points.
Shopping & style. Cardiff 50, Reykjavik 25: Cardiff leads by 25 points.
Affordability. Cardiff 46, Reykjavik 6: Cardiff leads by 40 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cardiff 57, Reykjavik 45: Cardiff leads by 12 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cardiff 27, Reykjavik 88: Reykjavik leads by 61 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cardiff and Reykjavik.

Your match

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

Cardiff
Best match
52match

Wins on prices and day trips with your weighting.

Reykjavik
44match

Wins on wellness and nature and the outdoors 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

Reykjavik in July

15 °Cdaytime high
9 °Cnight-time low
50 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
11 °Csea
20 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°5°10°15°20°25°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
CardiffReykjavik

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). Reykjavik: 1991-2020 normals, Reykjavik (2.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCardiffReykjavik
Official languageEnglishIcelandic
CurrencyPound Sterling (GBP)Iceland Krona (ISK)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC
Emergency number112 or 999112
Elevation41 m8 m
Main airportCardiff International Airport (CWL)15 km from centre30 non-stop destinationsKeflavik International Airport (KEF)37 km from centre88 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year8 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureCardiffReykjavik
City population383,536138,772
People per km²2,734569
Museums within 10 km923
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
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 Reykjavik 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.