VacationSelector
Fort San Pedro in Cebu City, Cebu
CebuFort San Pedro in Cebu City
People's Square (Narodni trg), Zadar
ZadarPeople's Square (Narodni trg)

Photos: Cebu by xiquinhosilva, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Zadar by Böhringer Friedrich, CC BY-SA 2.5, cropped.

Cebu 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 Cebu for

  • prices
  • shopping
  • wellness

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

Choose Zadar for

  • getting around
  • day trips
  • nature and the outdoors

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. Cebu 60, Zadar 72: Zadar leads by 12 points.
Food & drink. Cebu 58, Zadar 45: Cebu leads by 13 points.
Culture & sights. Cebu 40, Zadar 55: Zadar leads by 15 points.
Nightlife. Cebu 46, Zadar 38: Cebu leads by 8 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cebu 60, Zadar 82: Zadar leads by 22 points.
Day trips. Cebu 44, Zadar 70: Zadar leads by 26 points.
Good for families. Cebu 45, Zadar 55: Zadar leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Cebu 26, Zadar 58: Zadar leads by 32 points.
Shopping & style. Cebu 44, Zadar 27: Cebu leads by 17 points.
Affordability. Cebu 80, Zadar 52: Cebu leads by 28 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cebu 25, Zadar 28: Zadar leads by 3 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cebu 50, Zadar 35: Cebu leads by 15 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cebu and Zadar.

Your match

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

Cebu
48match

Wins on prices and shopping with your weighting.

Zadar
Best match
51match

Wins on getting around and day trips with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Cebu in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
205 mmrain in the month
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Zadar in July

31 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
29 mmrain in the month
24 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
CebuZadar

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. Cebu: 1991-2020 normals, Mactan (7.1 km from centre). Zadar: 1999-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Zadar / Zemunik (9.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCebuZadar
Official languageEnglish, Filipino, TaglishCroatian
CurrencyPhilippine Peso (PHP)Euro (EUR)
SocketsABC220 V, 60 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+8UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation135 m5 m
Main airportMactan Cebu International Airport (CEB)9 km from centre41 non-stop destinationsZadar Airport (ZAD)10 km from centre66 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year18 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureCebuZadar
City population965,33270,779
People per km²3,065-
Museums within 10 km51
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
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 Cebu 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). 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. 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.

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.