Dubrovnik or Ljubljana?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Wins on beaches & swimming and year-round weather with your weighting.
Wins on nature & day trips and nightlife with your weighting.
What matters to you?
Pick a travel style or drag the sliders. The match scores above update as you do.
The verdict
Choose Dubrovnik if the trip is built around swimming: many beaches within reach and a sea that stays at 21°C or more for five months, with the driest weather of the year falling in midsummer.
Choose Ljubljana if you want a compact city to walk, more places to eat and drink, and protected countryside and parkland close enough for day trips.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Dubrovnik leads by 77 points.77
| Dubrovnik | Ljubljana | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 77 | 0 |
| Swim season months | 5 | 0 |
| Beaches 10 km | 43 | 10 |
| Coast distance | 0 km | 72 km |
| Water distance | 0 km | — |
Places to eat. Ljubljana leads by 17 points.17
| Dubrovnik | Ljubljana | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 38 | 55 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 206 | 292 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 18 | 40 |
Museums & heritage. Ljubljana leads by 6 points.6
| Dubrovnik | Ljubljana | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 49 | 55 |
| Museums within 10 km | 18 | 26 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 17 | 23 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 94 | 88 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 3 | 3 |
Nightlife. Ljubljana leads by 25 points.25
| Dubrovnik | Ljubljana | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 20 | 45 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 128 | 458 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 110 | 284 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 86 | 62 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 13 | 24 |
Nature & day trips. Ljubljana leads by 35 points.35
| Dubrovnik | Ljubljana | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 5 | 40 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 4 | 13 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 4 | 5 |
| Land share of disc % | 51 | 100 |
| Park area within 2 km | 6 hectares | 75 hectares |
Good for families. Ljubljana leads by 17 points.17
| Dubrovnik | Ljubljana | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 21 | 38 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 12 | 12 |
| Park area within 2 km | 6 hectares | 75 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 1 | 0 |
Sights concentration. Ljubljana leads by 14 points.14
| Dubrovnik | Ljubljana | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 44 | 58 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 48 | 109 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Dubrovnik leads by 8 points.8
| Dubrovnik | Ljubljana | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 80 | 72 |
| Price level global | 48.5 | 59.6 |
| Daily budget | €138 | €131 |
Year-round weather. Dubrovnik leads by 9 points.9
| Dubrovnik | Ljubljana | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 65 | 56 |
| Monthly daytime high | 11 °C to 29.1 °C | 4.1 °C to 27.9 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 54 mm to 198 mm | 67 mm to 159 mm |
| Dry months | 0 | 0 |
Where they differ
Dubrovnik is the swimming trip: 43 beaches nearby against Ljubljana's 10, and sea at 21°C or more from June to October, where Ljubljana has none. It also has 1 theme park within reach, which Ljubljana lacks.
Ljubljana has about three times as many places to drink, a wider range of kitchens, and twice as many notable places within walking distance of the centre. Around it, 13% of the land is protected against 4% around Dubrovnik, with far more park space near the centre.
Where they are alike
Heritage is the closest match: both have 3 UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach, and although Ljubljana has somewhat more museums, either city fills several days of indoor sightseeing.
Weather and cost also land close. Neither city gets a properly dry month; both stay above 40mm of rain in every month, and both reach summer highs near 28-29°C. The national price levels behind them are similar too, at €138 and €131 a day.
Which traveller are you?
A swimmer or sun-seeker should take Dubrovnik. With 43 beaches nearby and the sea reaching 26°C in August, it is the only one of the two where the water is part of the holiday.
Someone after evenings out and unhurried city walking should take Ljubljana: roughly three times as many places to drink, a wider range of kitchens, and twice as many notable places within walking distance of the centre.
Families lean to Ljubljana, with far more park space near the centre and a similar number of attractions close by. Dubrovnik answers with 1 theme park within reach, plus swimming if the children are old enough.
What the numbers don't tell you
The daily budget figures, €138 and €131, are national price levels for Croatia and Slovenia, not measurements of Dubrovnik or Ljubljana. A small resident population and heavy visitor numbers can push a city well away from its country's average, in either direction, so the gap between the two says little about what either trip will cost.
Dubrovnik's beach strength describes a season rather than a year: in winter the sea sits at 14-16°C and rain runs above 110mm a month. Ljubljana's warmest months are also among its wettest, so the summer that reads best there is not a dry one.
When should you go?
The figures behind each month. Each row is shaded against that destination's own year, so the deepest cell is its best month for that measure and the palest its weakest. Shades are not comparable between the two rows.
Temperature and rainfall are thirty-year climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Dubrovnik: 1999-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Dubrovnik / Cilipi (15.3 km from centre). Ljubljana: 1991-2020 normals, Ljubljana / Bezigrad (1.9 km from centre).
Dubrovnik is best from June to August: highs of 26-29°C, sea at 23-26°C and the driest stretch of the year, down to 54mm at midsummer. Autumn stays swimmable but turns wet, with October rainfall above 140mm.
Ljubljana suits May to September, reaching 28°C in midsummer, though rain runs 114-126mm through those months and peaks at 159mm as summer ends. Winter there is cold rather than wet, with January highs of 4°C.
Getting there
| Flying from | Dubrovnik | Ljubljana |
|---|---|---|
| LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2 | 2 h 40 m no fares DBV · 16 km | 2 h 5 m no fares LJU · 20 km |
| RomeFCO, CIA | 1 h 15 m €55-130 DBV · 16 km | 1 h 10 m no fares TRS · 84 km |
| ViennaVIE | 1 h 25 m €66-134 DBV · 16 km | 1 h 0 m no fares ZAG · 126 km |
| ParisCDG, ORY, BVA | 2 h 20 m €63-108 DBV · 16 km | 1 h 45 m €139-178 1 stop LJU · 20 km |
| FrankfurtFRA, HHN | 2 h 0 m €181-222 1 stop DBV · 16 km | 1 h 25 m no fares LJU · 20 km |
| IstanbulIST, SAW | 1 h 40 m €255-303 1 stop DBV · 16 km | 2 h 10 m €188-190 LJU · 20 km |
| ZagrebZAG | 1 h 10 m no fares DBV · 16 km | 55 m no fares PUY · 137 km |
| DublinDUB | 3 h 15 m €135-178 2 stops DBV · 16 km | 2 h 35 m no fares TRS · 84 km |
| MunichMUC | 1 h 40 m €240-268 DBV · 16 km | 1 h 0 m no fares LJU · 20 km |
| Tel Aviv YafoTLV | 2 h 50 m €274-389 TIV · 57 km | 3 h 25 m no fares LJU · 20 km |
The busiest departure cities for these two, with a place kept for each other part of the world. Busiest means arriving passengers where an official count exists, and where none does, the number of non-stop services flown: official route statistics are published by the European reporting countries and by nobody else, so a table ranked on them alone would offer a reader in New York or Tokyo ten European cities. Flying times are estimated from the distance between airports, and every row is a city flown non-stop to both. Where the typical offer connects anyway, the stops are shown. Under each figure is the airport the flight lands at and how far that is from the centre, because the nearest airport is not always the one a route is flown to. Where both columns name the same airport it is one flight, and the difference between the two is the distance printed beside it. Typical return fares for 2026-08 to 2026-10, cached market data up to 7 days old. The figure is the middle half of the offers found, so a single price means they agreed and a range means they did not; for a typical route that middle half spans about a quarter of the median, and for the least settled routes rather more than the median itself.
Before you go
| Measure | Dubrovnik | Ljubljana |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | Croatian | Slovene |
| Currency | Euro (EUR) | Euro (EUR) |
| Sockets | CF230 V, 50 Hz | CF230 V, 50 Hz |
| Driving side | Right | Right |
| Time zone | UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer | UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer |
| Emergency number | 112 | 112 |
| Elevation | 10 m | 309 m |
| Main airport | Dubrovnik Ruđer Bošković Airport (DBV)16 km from centre74 non-stop destinations | Ljubljana Jože Pučnik Airport (LJU)20 km from centre28 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 14 days | 21 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Dubrovnik | Ljubljana |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 41,562 | 284,293 |
| People per km² | – | 1,736 |
| Museums within 10 km | 7 | 14 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 3 | 3 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 32 | 63 |
| Swim season, months above 21 °C | 5 months | – |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Dubrovnik or Ljubljana somewhere new.