Cardiff or York?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Wins on beaches & swimming and nature & day trips with your weighting.
Wins on good for families and museums & heritage with your weighting.
What matters to you?
Pick a travel style or drag the sliders. The match scores above update as you do.
The verdict
Choose Cardiff if you want the coast in reach: 8 beaches nearby, more park space near the centre, and a wider choice of restaurants and late-opening bars than York offers.
Choose York if the trip is about walking between attractions and museums that sit tightly around the centre, with more UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach and drier spring weather.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Cardiff leads by 46 points.46
| Cardiff | York | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 46 | 0 |
| Swim season months | 0 | 0 |
| Beaches 10 km | 8 | 2 |
| Coast distance | 2 km | 50 km |
| Water distance | 2 km | — |
Places to eat. Cardiff leads by 6 points.6
| Cardiff | York | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 60 | 54 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 541 | 361 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 32 | 31 |
Museums & heritage. York leads by 7 points.7
| Cardiff | York | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 39 | 46 |
| Museums within 10 km | 61 | 18 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 6 | 16 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 10 | 89 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 1 | 2 |
Nightlife. Cardiff leads by 5 points.5
| Cardiff | York | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 48 | 43 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 536 | 450 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 395 | 353 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 74 | 78 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 35 | 14 |
Nature & day trips. Cardiff leads by 17 points.17
| Cardiff | York | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 50 | 33 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 18 | 17 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 15 | 16 |
| Land share of disc % | 68 | 95 |
| Park area within 2 km | 88 hectares | 42 hectares |
Good for families. York leads by 11 points.11
| Cardiff | York | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 32 | 43 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 4 | 13 |
| Park area within 2 km | 88 hectares | 42 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 2 | 3 |
Sights concentration. Cardiff leads by 6 points.6
| Cardiff | York | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 45 | 39 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 51 | 37 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Cardiff and York are level on 54.
| Cardiff | York | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 54 | 54 |
| Price level global | 84.9 | 84.9 |
| Daily budget | — | — |
Year-round weather. York leads by 2 points.2
| Cardiff | York | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 54 | 56 |
| Monthly daytime high | 7.7 °C to 20.2 °C | 6.7 °C to 20.9 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 49 mm to 87 mm | 39 mm to 66 mm |
| Dry months | 0 | 1 |
Where they differ
Cardiff is the one with a coast, with 8 beaches nearby against York's 2, though neither has sea warm enough for comfortable swimming. It also has about twice as much park space near the centre, which makes days outdoors easier to arrange.
York is the better base for families on foot: about three times as many tourist attractions sit near the centre, and there are 3 theme parks within reach against Cardiff's 2. Its museums also cluster tightly, so little walking is needed between them.
Where they are alike
Their weather is close to identical: daytime highs of about 8-20°C across the year in both, a July peak in both, and January highs of 7-8°C.
They are also close on eating out, going out and walkable sightseeing. Both have their restaurants, bars and notable places grouped near the centre, with a similar range of kitchens, so an evening or a day on foot works much the same way in either.
Which traveller are you?
Families with children: York. About three times as many tourist attractions sit near the centre, and there are 3 theme parks within reach against Cardiff's 2, so days need less planning and less travel.
Anyone who wants coast and open ground: Cardiff. It has 8 beaches nearby, roughly twice the park space near the centre, and a slightly larger share of protected land around it for walking days.
Museum-goers face a split. Cardiff has about three times as many museums, while York keeps its own tightly grouped around the centre and has more UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach. Pick by walking distance or by choice.
What the numbers don't tell you
No cost comparison is possible here. The value figure is a national price level, identical for two cities in the same country by construction, so it says nothing about which of these two is the cheaper trip, and the dataset carries no daily budget for either. Judge cost from accommodation quotes for your own dates.
Cardiff's beach advantage is narrower than it looks. The sea tops out at 18°C in August and never reaches 21°C, so those 8 beaches are for walking and short dips, not swimming holidays, and the months warm enough to use them are the same months everyone else picks.
When should you go?
The figures behind each month. Each row is shaded against that destination's own year, so the deepest cell is its best month for that measure and the palest its weakest. Shades are not comparable between the two rows.
Temperature and rainfall are thirty-year climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cardiff: 1991-2020 normals, Cardiff-Wales Airport (14.9 km from centre). York: 1991-2020 normals, Leeming (47.9 km from centre).
Cardiff peaks in July and August, with highs of 20°C and sea of 17-18°C, the only stretch warm enough to consider swimming. Autumn and winter are wet, at 77-87mm a month, so late-season trips are best planned around indoor time.
York suits spring better. February to May run 39-48mm of rain against Cardiff's 49-56mm, with highs climbing to 16°C, and midsummer highs reach 21°C. Winter is drier in York as well, though both sit at similar temperatures then.
Getting there
| Flying from | Cardiff | York |
|---|---|---|
| Puerto del RosarioFUE | 3 h 50 m no fares BRS · 34 km | 4 h 10 m no fares LBA · 39 km |
| PalmaPMI | 2 h 20 m no fares BRS · 34 km | 2 h 35 m no fares LBA · 39 km |
| ArrecifeACE | 3 h 45 m no fares BRS · 34 km | 4 h 5 m no fares LBA · 39 km |
| IbizaIBZ | 2 h 20 m no fares BRS · 34 km | 2 h 40 m no fares LBA · 39 km |
| MalagaAGP | 2 h 35 m no fares CWL · 15 km | 2 h 55 m no fares LBA · 39 km |
| GenevaGVA | 1 h 40 m no fares BRS · 34 km | 1 h 50 m no fares LBA · 39 km |
| BridgetownBGI | 8 h 25 m no fares CWL · 15 km | 8 h 35 m no fares MAN · 104 km |
| TorontoYYZ, YHM, YTZ | 7 h 10 m no fares CWL · 15 km | 7 h 10 m no fares MAN · 104 km |
| AgadirAGA | 3 h 30 m no fares BRS · 34 km | 3 h 50 m no fares LBA · 39 km |
| New DelhiDEL | 8 h 40 m no fares BHX · 146 km | 8 h 40 m no fares MAN · 104 km |
The busiest departure cities for these two, with a place kept for each other part of the world. Busiest means arriving passengers where an official count exists, and where none does, the number of non-stop services flown: official route statistics are published by the European reporting countries and by nobody else, so a table ranked on them alone would offer a reader in New York or Tokyo ten European cities. Flying times are estimated from the distance between airports, and every row is a city flown non-stop to both. Where the typical offer connects anyway, the stops are shown. Under each figure is the airport the flight lands at and how far that is from the centre, because the nearest airport is not always the one a route is flown to. Where both columns name the same airport it is one flight, and the difference between the two is the distance printed beside it.
Before you go
| Measure | Cardiff | York |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | English | English |
| Currency | Pound Sterling (GBP) | Pound Sterling (GBP) |
| Sockets | G230 V, 50 Hz | G230 V, 50 Hz |
| Driving side | Left | Left |
| Time zone | UTC, UTC+1 in summer | UTC, UTC+1 in summer |
| Emergency number | 112 or 999 | 112 or 999 |
| Elevation | 41 m | 25 m |
| Main airport | Cardiff International Airport (CWL)15 km from centre8 non-stop destinations | Leeds Bradford Airport (LBA)39 km from centre73 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 8 days | 8 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Cardiff | York |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 383,536 | 208,400 |
| People per km² | 2,734 | 766 |
| Museums within 10 km | 9 | 24 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 1 | 2 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 55 | 54 |
| Swim season, months above 21 °C | None | – |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Cardiff or York somewhere new.