VacationSelector
Cardiff Castle, Cardiff
CardiffCardiff Castle
Gastown, Vancouver
VancouverGastown

Photos: Cardiff by Tevfik Teker, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Vancouver by Xicotencatl, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Cardiff or Vancouver?

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

  • day trips
  • prices
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Vancouver for

  • food and drink
  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Vancouver’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, Vancouver 42: Vancouver leads by 12 points.
Food & drink. Cardiff 45, Vancouver 72: Vancouver leads by 27 points.
Culture & sights. Cardiff 58, Vancouver 42: Cardiff leads by 16 points.
Nightlife. Cardiff 50, Vancouver 42: Cardiff leads by 8 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cardiff 70, Vancouver 97: Vancouver leads by 27 points.
Day trips. Cardiff 72, Vancouver 45: Cardiff leads by 27 points.
Good for families. Cardiff 58, Vancouver 72: Vancouver leads by 14 points.
Getting around. Cardiff 66, Vancouver 73: Vancouver leads by 7 points.
Shopping & style. Cardiff 50, Vancouver 55: Vancouver leads by 5 points.
Affordability. Cardiff 46, Vancouver 27: Cardiff leads by 19 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cardiff 57, Vancouver 52: Cardiff leads by 5 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cardiff 27, Vancouver 50: Vancouver leads by 23 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cardiff and Vancouver.

Your match

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

Cardiff
52match

Wins on day trips and prices with your weighting.

Vancouver
Best match
56match

Wins on food and drink 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

Vancouver in July

23 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
42 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
16 °Csea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°5°10°15°20°25°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
CardiffVancouver

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). Vancouver: 1991-2020 normals, Vancouver Harbour CS (4.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCardiffVancouver
Official languageEnglishFrench, English
CurrencyPound Sterling (GBP)Canadian Dollar (CAD)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number112 or 999911
Elevation41 m2 m
Main airportCardiff International Airport (CWL)15 km from centre30 non-stop destinationsVancouver International Airport (YVR)9 km from centre109 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year8 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureCardiffVancouver
City population383,536662,248
People per km²2,7345,759
Museums within 10 km926
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 Vancouver 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.