VacationSelector
The Explanada de España, Alicante
AlicanteThe Explanada de España
People's Square (Narodni trg), Zadar
ZadarPeople's Square (Narodni trg)

Photos: Alicante by Emilio Sánchez Hernández, Pexels License; Zadar by Böhringer Friedrich, CC BY-SA 2.5, cropped.

Alicante or Zadar?

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 Alicante for

  • food and drink
  • nightlife
  • shopping

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

Choose Zadar for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Zadar’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. Alicante 82, Zadar 72: Alicante leads by 10 points.
Food & drink. Alicante 67, Zadar 45: Alicante leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. Alicante 46, Zadar 55: Zadar leads by 9 points.
Nightlife. Alicante 60, Zadar 38: Alicante leads by 22 points.
Nature & outdoors. Alicante 63, Zadar 82: Zadar leads by 19 points.
Day trips. Alicante 72, Zadar 70: Alicante leads by 2 points.
Good for families. Alicante 68, Zadar 55: Alicante leads by 13 points.
Getting around. Alicante 66, Zadar 58: Alicante leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. Alicante 44, Zadar 27: Alicante leads by 17 points.
Affordability. Alicante 60, Zadar 52: Alicante leads by 8 points.
Live music & performing arts. Alicante 37, Zadar 28: Alicante leads by 9 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Alicante 40, Zadar 35: Alicante leads by 5 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Alicante and Zadar.

Your match

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

Alicante
Best match
59match

Wins on food and drink and nightlife with your weighting.

Zadar
51match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and culture and sights with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Alicante in July

30 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
3 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Zadar in July

31 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
29 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
24 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
AlicanteZadar

Where the figures come from

Zadar 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.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Alicante: 1991-2020 normals, Alicante (2.8 km from centre). Zadar: 1999-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Zadar / Zemunik (9.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAlicanteZadar
Official languageSpanishCroatian
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation3 m5 m
Main airportAlicante-Elche Miguel Hernández Airport (ALC)10 km from centre126 non-stop destinationsZadar Airport (ZAD)10 km from centre66 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureAlicanteZadar
City population366,22170,779
People per km²1,819-
Museums within 10 km81
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km22
Swim season, months above 21 °C5 months4 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Alicante or Zadar 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). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates.

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.