VacationSelector
The Campanile, Trinity College, Dublin
DublinThe Campanile, Trinity College
People's Square (Narodni trg), Zadar
ZadarPeople's Square (Narodni trg)

Photos: Dublin by David Kernan, CC BY 4.0, cropped; Zadar by Böhringer Friedrich, CC BY-SA 2.5, cropped.

Dublin 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 Dublin for

  • live music and the arts
  • shopping
  • nightlife

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

Choose Zadar for

  • beaches
  • prices
  • 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. Dublin 27, Zadar 72: Zadar leads by 45 points.
Food & drink. Dublin 50, Zadar 45: Dublin leads by 5 points.
Culture & sights. Dublin 64, Zadar 55: Dublin leads by 9 points.
Nightlife. Dublin 62, Zadar 38: Dublin leads by 24 points.
Nature & outdoors. Dublin 70, Zadar 82: Zadar leads by 12 points.
Day trips. Dublin 72, Zadar 70: Dublin leads by 2 points.
Good for families. Dublin 57, Zadar 55: Dublin leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Dublin 66, Zadar 58: Dublin leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. Dublin 54, Zadar 27: Dublin leads by 27 points.
Affordability. Dublin 20, Zadar 52: Zadar leads by 32 points.
Live music & performing arts. Dublin 65, Zadar 28: Dublin leads by 37 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Dublin 25, Zadar 35: Zadar leads by 10 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Dublin
53match

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

Zadar
51match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Dublin in July

20 °Cdaytime high
11 °Cnight-time low
62 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
15 °Csea
17 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

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
DublinZadar

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. Dublin: 1991-2020 normals, Dublin Airport (9.3 km from centre). Zadar: 1999-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Zadar / Zemunik (9.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureDublinZadar
Official languageEnglish, IrishCroatian
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation20 m5 m
Main airportDublin Airport (DUB)9 km from centre200 non-stop destinationsZadar Airport (ZAD)10 km from centre66 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureDublinZadar
City population592,71370,779
People per km²5,154-
Museums within 10 km401
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km12
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone4 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Dublin 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). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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. 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.