I haven’t lived in Cardiff for a decade and only in areas that’d be described as inner Cardiff. I’ve visited less and less as the years have passed, so all of my views will be dated.

I used to like how it felt more like a big town with a much bigger city’s amenities crammed into it, all fairly walkable too.

I liked all the areas I lived in and was never far from fairly spacious green spaces. Never really felt unsafe or likely to find trouble, never thought twice about walking alone at night.

Sports wise, it has a pretty impressive offering. 4 professional sports teams (?), international football, rugby, and cricket, with the 4th biggest stadium in the UK. Sometimes this fact gets overplayed, but also sometimes it feels it isn’t quite appreciated either.

Don’t get me wrong, it could definitely have been improved but public transport felt OK to me relatively speaking at the time. It’s not London/turn up and go but probably about what you’d expect from a British city, which says more about the UK.

Decent watering holes and fun for a night out, but with a somewhat limited variety of entertainment offer and to a degree cultural offer. There were places I liked just fine but restaurants on the whole were average.

In many ways I think it punched above its weight, but at the same time, almost contradictorily, it felt it often didn't make the most of its potential. I can’t quite put it into words but it sometimes felt it didn’t value what it had and had a sort of carelessness about itself.