Glad to know the exit tax is taken care of. The price of the plane tickets was hard enough to swallow. I bought my tickets in october and paid 1782.00 after taxes for economy class for two people. My statement says 654.00 went to taxes! Now I know which taxes they were. I guess I had best make the most of this holiday, because sadly I wont be able to visit again for a long while at these rates:(

janisj, thanks! LOL, I should pay closer attention to all those darn fees! Never realized that it cost MORE to leave.

shaytravels, you've gotten some great advice from people who know both places well. I don't have much new to add, we enjoyed both cities but for different reasons. I'd say York is so compact and well preserved, it almost doesn't feel <i>real</i>, while Cardiff bustles with the hum you'd expect of a capital city. Also, the center of York can be quite crowded with tourists - at least it was when we were there in late August.

Here are some links to photos we took on our trips:

I never posted most of my Cardiff pictures, but here are some selected ones. Cardiff castle-
share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8DZsmzZuzbQE

Caerphilly Castle (we took the bus from downtown Cardiff)-
ttp://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8DZsmzZuzbP8&amp;notag=1

York-
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/w...d=8DZsmzZuzalM

Here are links to my trip reports:
http://fodors.com/forums/threadselec...p;tid=35016109
(Cardiff is halfway through)
http://fodors.com/forums/threadselec...p;tid=34870457
(York begins about a third of the way through)

It sounds like you will have a good amount of time to explore either place.

noe847, your pictures were lovely! I also enjoyed reading about all of your adventures.
Thanks again everyone for all of your insight. I think I've finally made up my mind. And I plan to sit down with Torchwood season 1 this weekend.