VacationSelector
The Anshun Bridge over the Jin River, Chengdu
ChengduThe Anshun Bridge over the Jin River
People's Square (Narodni trg), Zadar
ZadarPeople's Square (Narodni trg)

Photos: Chengdu by TurnOnTheNight, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Zadar by Böhringer Friedrich, CC BY-SA 2.5, cropped.

Chengdu 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 Chengdu for

  • food and drink
  • shopping
  • nightlife

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

Choose Zadar for

  • beaches
  • 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. Chengdu 5, Zadar 72: Zadar leads by 67 points.
Food & drink. Chengdu 86, Zadar 45: Chengdu leads by 41 points.
Culture & sights. Chengdu 60, Zadar 55: Chengdu leads by 5 points.
Nightlife. Chengdu 68, Zadar 38: Chengdu leads by 30 points.
Nature & outdoors. Chengdu 68, Zadar 82: Zadar leads by 14 points.
Day trips. Chengdu 80, Zadar 70: Chengdu leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Chengdu 65, Zadar 55: Chengdu leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Chengdu 74, Zadar 58: Chengdu leads by 16 points.
Shopping & style. Chengdu 64, Zadar 27: Chengdu leads by 37 points.
Affordability. Chengdu 80, Zadar 52: Chengdu leads by 28 points.
Live music & performing arts. Chengdu 50, Zadar 28: Chengdu leads by 22 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Chengdu 58, Zadar 35: Chengdu leads by 23 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Chengdu and Zadar.

Your match

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

Chengdu
Best match
63match

Wins on food and drink and shopping with your weighting.

Zadar
51match

Wins on beaches 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.

Chengdu in July

31 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
177 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
No seasea
14 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
ChengduZadar

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. Chengdu: 1991-2020 normals, Chengdu (4.5 km from centre). Zadar: 1999-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Zadar / Zemunik (9.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureChengduZadar
Official languagePutonghuaCroatian
CurrencyYuan Renminbi (CNY)Euro (EUR)
SocketsACI220 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+8UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 110, ambulance 120, fire 119112
Elevation500 m5 m
Main airportChengdu Shuangliu International Airport (CTU)16 km from centre77 non-stop destinationsZadar Airport (ZAD)10 km from centre66 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year6 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureChengduZadar
City population20,937,75770,779
People per km²1,456-
Museums within 10 km101
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
Swim season, months above 21 °C-4 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Chengdu 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. 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.