VacationSelector
Cardiff Castle, Cardiff
CardiffCardiff Castle
Painted colonial houses in the Pelourinho, Salvador
SalvadorPainted colonial houses in the Pelourinho

Photos: Cardiff by Tevfik Teker, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Salvador by Paul R. Burley, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Cardiff or Salvador?

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
  • nature and the outdoors
  • day trips

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

Choose Salvador for

  • beaches
  • prices
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Salvador’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, Salvador 84: Salvador leads by 54 points.
Food & drink. Cardiff 45, Salvador 66: Salvador leads by 21 points.
Culture & sights. Cardiff 58, Salvador 74: Salvador leads by 16 points.
Nightlife. Cardiff 50, Salvador 70: Salvador leads by 20 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cardiff 70, Salvador 52: Cardiff leads by 18 points.
Day trips. Cardiff 72, Salvador 56: Cardiff leads by 16 points.
Good for families. Cardiff 58, Salvador 42: Cardiff leads by 16 points.
Getting around. Cardiff 66, Salvador 42: Cardiff leads by 24 points.
Shopping & style. Cardiff 50, Salvador 42: Cardiff leads by 8 points.
Affordability. Cardiff 46, Salvador 70: Salvador leads by 24 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cardiff 57, Salvador 63: Salvador leads by 6 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cardiff 27, Salvador 32: Salvador leads by 5 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cardiff and Salvador.

Your match

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

Cardiff
52match

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

Salvador
Best match
58match

Wins on beaches and prices 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

Salvador in July

27 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
201 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
26 °Csea
11 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
CardiffSalvador

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). Salvador: 1991-2020 normals, Salvador (4.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCardiffSalvador
Official languageEnglishPortuguese
CurrencyPound Sterling (GBP)Brazilian Real (BRL)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzCN60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC-3
Emergency number112 or 999Police 190, ambulance 192, fire 193
Elevation41 m8 m
Main airportCardiff International Airport (CWL)15 km from centre30 non-stop destinationsDeputado Luiz Eduardo Magalhães International Airport (SSA)20 km from centre31 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year8 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureCardiffSalvador
City population383,5362,417,678
People per km²2,7343,489
Museums within 10 km949
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
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 Salvador 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.