VacationSelector
Clearwater Beach in evening light, with its hotels and pier, Clearwater
ClearwaterClearwater Beach in evening light, with its hotels and pier
People's Square (Narodni trg), Zadar
ZadarPeople's Square (Narodni trg)

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

Clearwater 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 Clearwater for

  • families
  • beaches
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Zadar for

  • culture and sights
  • getting around
  • 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. Clearwater 90, Zadar 72: Clearwater leads by 18 points.
Food & drink. Clearwater 38, Zadar 45: Zadar leads by 7 points.
Culture & sights. Clearwater 18, Zadar 55: Zadar leads by 37 points.
Nightlife. Clearwater 34, Zadar 38: Zadar leads by 4 points.
Nature & outdoors. Clearwater 55, Zadar 82: Zadar leads by 27 points.
Day trips. Clearwater 58, Zadar 70: Zadar leads by 12 points.
Good for families. Clearwater 78, Zadar 55: Clearwater leads by 23 points.
Getting around. Clearwater 28, Zadar 58: Zadar leads by 30 points.
Shopping & style. Clearwater and Zadar are level on 27.
Affordability. Clearwater 35, Zadar 52: Zadar leads by 17 points.
Live music & performing arts. Clearwater 36, Zadar 28: Clearwater leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Clearwater 40, Zadar 35: Clearwater leads by 5 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Clearwater and Zadar.

Your match

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

Clearwater
45match

Wins on families and beaches with your weighting.

Zadar
Best match
51match

Wins on culture and sights and getting around with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Clearwater in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
188 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
30 °Csea
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
ClearwaterZadar

Where the figures come from

Clearwater 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.

Clearwater's sunshine is measured 26 km from the centre, at Tampa International Airport.

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. Clearwater: 2006-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Saint Petersburg / High Point (12.7 km from centre). Zadar: 1999-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Zadar / Zemunik (9.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureClearwaterZadar
Official language-Croatian
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation9 m5 m
Main airportSt. Petersburg Clearwater International Airport (PIE)13 km from centre60 non-stop destinationsZadar Airport (ZAD)10 km from centre66 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureClearwaterZadar
City population117,29270,779
People per km²1,154-
Museums within 10 km41
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
Swim season, months above 21 °C8 months4 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Clearwater 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.