VacationSelector
Cloud Gate in Millennium Park, Chicago
ChicagoCloud Gate in Millennium Park
People's Square (Narodni trg), Zadar
ZadarPeople's Square (Narodni trg)

Photos: Chicago by Jesus Toledo, Pexels License; Zadar by Böhringer Friedrich, CC BY-SA 2.5, cropped.

Chicago 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 Chicago for

  • live music and the arts
  • shopping
  • nightlife

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

Choose Zadar for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • day trips
  • beaches

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. Chicago 50, Zadar 72: Zadar leads by 22 points.
Food & drink. Chicago 80, Zadar 45: Chicago leads by 35 points.
Culture & sights. Chicago 78, Zadar 55: Chicago leads by 23 points.
Nightlife. Chicago 77, Zadar 38: Chicago leads by 39 points.
Nature & outdoors. Chicago 48, Zadar 82: Zadar leads by 34 points.
Day trips. Chicago 42, Zadar 70: Zadar leads by 28 points.
Good for families. Chicago 78, Zadar 55: Chicago leads by 23 points.
Getting around. Chicago 72, Zadar 58: Chicago leads by 14 points.
Shopping & style. Chicago 70, Zadar 27: Chicago leads by 43 points.
Affordability. Chicago 33, Zadar 52: Zadar leads by 19 points.
Live music & performing arts. Chicago 82, Zadar 28: Chicago leads by 54 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Chicago 33, Zadar 35: Zadar leads by 2 points.
0255075100

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

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.

Zadar
51match

Wins on nature and the outdoors 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
21 °Csea
15 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

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
ChicagoZadar

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. Chicago: 1991-2020 normals, Chicago Midway Airport (14.5 km from centre). Zadar: 1999-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Zadar / Zemunik (9.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureChicagoZadar
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 m5 m
Main airportChicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD)25 km from centre274 non-stop destinationsZadar Airport (ZAD)10 km from centre66 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureChicagoZadar
City population2,746,38870,779
People per km²4,529-
Museums within 10 km441
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km12
Swim season, months above 21 °C1 month4 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Chicago 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.