Photos: Colombo by Mohamed Ansaf, Pexels License; Dubrovnik by Natalia Semenova, CC BY 3.0, cropped.
Colombo 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 Colombo for
- prices
- shopping
- food and drink
What lies behind each score is written up on Colombo’s own page.
Choose Dubrovnik for
- nature and the outdoors
- culture and sights
- getting around
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.
What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Colombo and Dubrovnik.
Your match
Pick a travel style or drag the sliders, and both match scores follow your weighting.
Wins on prices and shopping with your weighting.
Wins on nature and the outdoors and culture and sights with your weighting.
What matters to you?
When should you go?
Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.
Colombo in July
Dubrovnik in July
Daytime high, °C
Rainfall in the month, mm
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. Colombo: 1991-2020 normals, Colombo (3 km from centre). Dubrovnik: 1999-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Dubrovnik / Cilipi (15.3 km from centre).
Before you go
| Measure | Colombo | Dubrovnik |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | Tamil, Sinhala | Croatian |
| Currency | Sri Lanka Rupee (LKR) | Euro (EUR) |
| Sockets | GM230 V, 50 Hz | CF230 V, 50 Hz |
| Driving side | Left | Right |
| Time zone | UTC+5:30 | UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer |
| Emergency number | Police 119, ambulance 110, fire 110 | 112 |
| Elevation | 1 m | 10 m |
| Main airport | Bandaranaike International Colombo Airport (CMB)28 km from centre56 non-stop destinations | Dubrovnik Ruđer Bošković Airport (DBV)16 km from centre76 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | - | 14 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Colombo | Dubrovnik |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 647,557 | 41,562 |
| People per km² | 17,361 | - |
| Museums within 10 km | 10 | 7 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 0 | 3 |
| Swim season, months above 21 °C | 12 months | 5 months |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Colombo or Dubrovnik somewhere new.