VacationSelector
Yellow colonial houses in the walled city, Cartagena
CartagenaYellow colonial houses in the walled city
People's Square (Narodni trg), Zadar
ZadarPeople's Square (Narodni trg)

Photos: Cartagena by Dr. Thomas Liptak, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Zadar by Böhringer Friedrich, CC BY-SA 2.5, cropped.

Cartagena 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 Cartagena for

  • nightlife
  • shopping
  • food and drink

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

Choose Zadar for

  • day trips
  • nature and the outdoors
  • families

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. Cartagena 70, Zadar 72: Zadar leads by 2 points.
Food & drink. Cartagena 62, Zadar 45: Cartagena leads by 17 points.
Culture & sights. Cartagena 68, Zadar 55: Cartagena leads by 13 points.
Nightlife. Cartagena 70, Zadar 38: Cartagena leads by 32 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cartagena 46, Zadar 82: Zadar leads by 36 points.
Day trips. Cartagena 33, Zadar 70: Zadar leads by 37 points.
Good for families. Cartagena 40, Zadar 55: Zadar leads by 15 points.
Getting around. Cartagena 54, Zadar 58: Zadar leads by 4 points.
Shopping & style. Cartagena 48, Zadar 27: Cartagena leads by 21 points.
Affordability. Cartagena 60, Zadar 52: Cartagena leads by 8 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cartagena 40, Zadar 28: Cartagena leads by 12 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cartagena 40, Zadar 35: Cartagena leads by 5 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cartagena and Zadar.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Cartagena
53match

Wins on nightlife and shopping with your weighting.

Zadar
51match

Wins on day trips and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Cartagena in July

31 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
124 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
30 °Csea
13 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

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
CartagenaZadar

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. Cartagena: 1991-2020 normals, Cartagena / Rafael Nunez (3.1 km from centre). Zadar: 1999-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Zadar / Zemunik (9.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCartagenaZadar
Official languageSpanishCroatian
CurrencyColombian Peso (COP)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number123112
Elevation2 m5 m
Main airportRafael Nuñez International Airport (CTG)2 km from centre26 non-stop destinationsZadar Airport (ZAD)10 km from centre66 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year19 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureCartagenaZadar
City population914,55270,779
People per km²1,599-
Museums within 10 km21
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km12
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months4 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Cartagena 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). 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. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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.