VacationSelector

United Kingdom

Cardiff

Match

48

  • Beach first49
  • Culture first47
  • Food & nightlife50
  • Family trip46
  • Nature first49
  • Good weather49
  • On a budget49

The nine measures

Each scored 0 to 100 against fixed anchors, so a score means the same thing on every page. Open a row for the figures behind it.

Beaches & swimming. Scores 46 out of 100.46
Score46
Swim season months0
Beaches 10 km8
Coast distance2 km
Water distance2 km

Sea reaches 21 °C or more in 0 months, 8 beaches lie within 10 km, and the water is 2 km away.

Places to eat. Scores 60 out of 100.60
Score60
Restaurants within 2 km of centre541
Effective number of cuisines within 2 km32

541 restaurants within 2 km of the centre, spread across an effective 32 kitchens.

Museums & heritage. Scores 39 out of 100.39
Score39
Museums within 10 km61
Museums within 2 km of centre6
Share of museums within 2 km %10
Unesco sites within 50 km1

61 museums mapped within 10 km, 10% of them within 2 km of the centre, and 1 whole UNESCO inscription within 50 km.

Nightlife. Scores 48 out of 100.48
Score48
Drinking venues within 4 km536
Drinking venues within 2 km of centre395
Share of drinking venues within 2 km %74
Nightclubs within 4 km35

536 places to drink within 4 km, 35 nightclubs among them, and 74% of the drinking venues within 2 km of the centre.

Nature & day trips. Scores 50 out of 100.50
Score50
Protected land share 50 km %18
Landscape blanket share 50 km %15
Land share of disc %68
Park area within 2 km88 hectares

18% of the 50 km disc around the city is protected land, and there are 88 hectares of park within 2 km of the centre.

Good for families. Scores 32 out of 100.32
Score32
Tourist attractions within 2 km4
Park area within 2 km88 hectares
Theme parks within 30 km2

4 tourist attractions within 2 km beside 88 hectares of park, and 2 theme parks within 30 km.

Sights concentration. Scores 45 out of 100.45
Score45
Notable places within 2 km51
Min wikipedia languages5

51 notable places within 2 km of the centre, counting places with a Wikipedia presence in at least five languages.

Value for money. Scores 54 out of 100.54
Score54
Price level global84.9
Daily budget

National price level of 84.9 against the United States at 100, scored on a fixed scale from 20, the cheapest countries anyone travels to, to 160, the most expensive.

Year-round weather. Scores 54 out of 100.54
Score54
Monthly daytime high7.7 °C to 20.2 °C
Monthly rainfall49 mm to 87 mm
Dry months0

Daytime highs run 8-20 °C across the year, with 0 month(s) at 40 mm of rain or less.

0255075100

When should you go?

The figures behind each month, shaded against this city's own year: the deepest cell is its best month for that measure and the palest its weakest.

J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D
Daytime high, °C
Cardiff
8
8
10
13
16
18
20
20
18
14
11
9
Sea temperature, °C
Cardiff
8
7
8
9
12
15
17
18
17
15
12
9
Rainfall, mm
Cardiff
77
55
49
54
56
56
61
66
54
87
83
79
Daylight, hours per day
Cardiff
8
10
12
14
16
17
16
15
13
11
9
8
Sunshine, hours per day
Cardiff
2
3
4
6
7
7
7
6
5
4
2
2

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).

WorseBetter

Getting there

Flying fromCardiff
PaphosPFO
4 h 40 m
no fares
CWL · 15 km
MalagaAGP
2 h 35 m
no fares
CWL · 15 km
AlicanteALC
2 h 25 m
no fares
CWL · 15 km
DublinDUB
1 h 0 m
no fares
CWL · 15 km
AmsterdamAMS
1 h 20 m
no fares
CWL · 15 km
TenerifeTFS, TFN
4 h 0 m
no fares
CWL · 15 km
TorontoYYZ, YHM, YTZ
7 h 10 m
no fares
CWL · 15 km
BridgetownBGI
8 h 25 m
no fares
CWL · 15 km
MarrakechRAK
3 h 20 m
no fares
BRS · 34 km
New DelhiDEL
8 h 40 m
no fares
BHX · 146 km

The busiest departure cities for Cardiff, 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. 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.

Before you go

MeasureCardiff
Official languageEnglish
CurrencyPound Sterling (GBP)
SocketsG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeft
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summer
Emergency number112 or 999
Elevation41 m
Main airportCardiff International Airport (CWL)15 km from centre8 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year8 days

By the numbers

MeasureCardiff
City population383,536
People per km²2,734
Museums within 10 km9
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km1
Distinct cuisines in the centre55
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone

Compare Cardiff with

Every comparison with a written verdict behind it.

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. 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.

Scores follow rubric v2; snapshot generated 2026-09-01. Every destination we have measured.