VacationSelector
Cloud Gate in Millennium Park, Chicago
ChicagoCloud Gate in Millennium Park
Fort Lovrijenac above the sea, Dubrovnik
DubrovnikFort Lovrijenac above the sea

Photos: Chicago by Jesus Toledo, Pexels License; Dubrovnik by Natalia Semenova, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Chicago or Dubrovnik?

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 Chicago for

  • live music and the arts
  • shopping
  • nightlife

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

Choose Dubrovnik for

  • beaches
  • day trips
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Dubrovnik’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. Chicago 50, Dubrovnik 74: Dubrovnik leads by 24 points.
Food & drink. Chicago 80, Dubrovnik 47: Chicago leads by 33 points.
Culture & sights. Chicago 78, Dubrovnik 72: Chicago leads by 6 points.
Nightlife. Chicago 77, Dubrovnik 37: Chicago leads by 40 points.
Nature & outdoors. Chicago 48, Dubrovnik 70: Dubrovnik leads by 22 points.
Day trips. Chicago 42, Dubrovnik 66: Dubrovnik leads by 24 points.
Good for families. Chicago 78, Dubrovnik 50: Chicago leads by 28 points.
Getting around. Chicago 72, Dubrovnik 60: Chicago leads by 12 points.
Shopping & style. Chicago 70, Dubrovnik 25: Chicago leads by 45 points.
Affordability. Chicago 33, Dubrovnik 28: Chicago leads by 5 points.
Live music & performing arts. Chicago 82, Dubrovnik 25: Chicago leads by 57 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Chicago 33, Dubrovnik 32: Chicago leads by 1 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Chicago and Dubrovnik.

Your match

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

Chicago
Best match
62match

Wins on live music and the arts and shopping with your weighting.

Dubrovnik
49match

Wins on beaches 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.

Chicago in July

29 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
102 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
21 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Dubrovnik in July

29 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
29 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
ChicagoDubrovnik

Where the figures come from

Dubrovnik 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.

Dubrovnik's sunshine is measured 83 km from the centre, at Mostar.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Chicago: 1991-2020 normals, Chicago Midway Airport (14.5 km from centre). Dubrovnik: 1999-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Dubrovnik / Cilipi (15.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureChicagoDubrovnik
Official language-Croatian
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6, UTC-5 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation179 m10 m
Main airportChicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD)25 km from centre274 non-stop destinationsDubrovnik Ruđer Bošković Airport (DBV)16 km from centre76 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureChicagoDubrovnik
City population2,746,38841,562
People per km²4,529-
Museums within 10 km447
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km13
Swim season, months above 21 °C1 month5 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Chicago or Dubrovnik 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.