VacationSelector
Beira Lake with Seema Malaka and the Lotus Tower, Colombo
ColomboBeira Lake with Seema Malaka and the Lotus Tower
People's Square (Narodni trg), Zadar
ZadarPeople's Square (Narodni trg)

Photos: Colombo by Mohamed Ansaf, Pexels License; Zadar by Böhringer Friedrich, CC BY-SA 2.5, cropped.

Colombo 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 Colombo for

  • prices
  • food and drink
  • shopping

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

Choose Zadar for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • getting around
  • day trips

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. Colombo 55, Zadar 72: Zadar leads by 17 points.
Food & drink. Colombo 66, Zadar 45: Colombo leads by 21 points.
Culture & sights. Colombo 45, Zadar 55: Zadar leads by 10 points.
Nightlife. Colombo 35, Zadar 38: Zadar leads by 3 points.
Nature & outdoors. Colombo 32, Zadar 82: Zadar leads by 50 points.
Day trips. Colombo 50, Zadar 70: Zadar leads by 20 points.
Good for families. Colombo 35, Zadar 55: Zadar leads by 20 points.
Getting around. Colombo 35, Zadar 58: Zadar leads by 23 points.
Shopping & style. Colombo 45, Zadar 27: Colombo leads by 18 points.
Affordability. Colombo 78, Zadar 52: Colombo leads by 26 points.
Live music & performing arts. Colombo 30, Zadar 28: Colombo leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Colombo 48, Zadar 35: Colombo leads by 13 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Colombo and Zadar.

Your match

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

Colombo
46match

Wins on prices and food and drink with your weighting.

Zadar
Best match
51match

Wins on nature and the outdoors 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.

Colombo in July

30 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
128 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
28 °Csea
13 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

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
ColomboZadar

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. Colombo: 1991-2020 normals, Colombo (3 km from centre). Zadar: 1999-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Zadar / Zemunik (9.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureColomboZadar
Official languageTamil, SinhalaCroatian
CurrencySri Lanka Rupee (LKR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsGM230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+5:30UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 119, ambulance 110, fire 110112
Elevation1 m5 m
Main airportBandaranaike International Colombo Airport (CMB)28 km from centre56 non-stop destinationsZadar Airport (ZAD)10 km from centre66 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-14 days

By the numbers

MeasureColomboZadar
City population647,55770,779
People per km²17,361-
Museums within 10 km101
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months4 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Colombo 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). 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. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates.

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.