Dubrovnik or Naples?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Wins on value for money and beaches & swimming with your weighting.
Wins on nightlife and sights concentration 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 swimming decides it: the sea starts at the centre, 43 beaches sit within reach, and the choice of kitchens is broader than the town's size suggests.
Choose Naples if you want depth on land: far more museums, many more notable places within walking distance of the centre, a real choice of bars and clubs, and more parkland and protected country for days out.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Dubrovnik leads by 1 points.1
| Dubrovnik | Naples | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 77 | 76 |
| Swim season months | 5 | 5 |
| Beaches 10 km | 43 | 29 |
| Coast distance | 0 km | 1 km |
| Water distance | 0 km | 1 km |
Places to eat. Naples leads by 8 points.8
| Dubrovnik | Naples | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 38 | 46 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 206 | 1,244 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 18 | 7 |
Museums & heritage. Naples leads by 29 points.29
| Dubrovnik | Naples | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 49 | 78 |
| Museums within 10 km | 18 | 84 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 17 | 68 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 94 | 81 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 3 | 5 |
Nightlife. Naples leads by 46 points.46
| Dubrovnik | Naples | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 20 | 66 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 128 | 1,389 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 110 | 964 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 86 | 69 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 13 | 40 |
Nature & day trips. Naples leads by 32 points.32
| Dubrovnik | Naples | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 5 | 37 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 4 | 7 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 4 | 0 |
| Land share of disc % | 51 | 56 |
| Park area within 2 km | 6 hectares | 41 hectares |
Good for families. Naples leads by 20 points.20
| Dubrovnik | Naples | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 21 | 41 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 12 | 11 |
| Park area within 2 km | 6 hectares | 41 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 1 | 3 |
Sights concentration. Naples leads by 34 points.34
| Dubrovnik | Naples | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 44 | 78 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 48 | 351 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Dubrovnik leads by 12 points.12
| Dubrovnik | Naples | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 80 | 68 |
| Price level global | 48.5 | 64.9 |
| Daily budget | €138 | €155 |
Year-round weather. Naples leads by 8 points.8
| Dubrovnik | Naples | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 65 | 73 |
| Monthly daytime high | 11 °C to 29.1 °C | 13.1 °C to 31.4 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 54 mm to 198 mm | 17 mm to 159 mm |
| Dry months | 0 | 3 |
Where they differ
Naples has many times as many places to drink and about three times as many nightclubs, plus many times as many notable places within walking distance of the centre. It also holds many times as many museums, 5 UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach against Dubrovnik's 3, and more protected land around it, 7% against 4%.
Dubrovnik answers on the water. The sea is 0km from the centre and there are 43 beaches nearby against Naples's 29. Its restaurants are far fewer, but they cover a much wider range of kitchens.
Where they are alike
Swimming is close to a tie. Both put the sea within easy reach of the centre, both hold 5 months with the water at 21°C or more, and both peak in August at 26°C.
The two are also close on eating out and on year-round conditions: neither leaves you short of somewhere to eat, and both stay sunny across the year, roughly 2,400-2,500 sunshine hours, with January highs of 11-13°C.
Which traveller are you?
A traveller whose week is built around swimming should take Dubrovnik: the sea begins at the centre and there are more beaches to pick from, though Naples matches it on water temperature, 26°C in August.
Anyone here for museums, walkable sightseeing and evenings out belongs in Naples, with many times as many museums and notable places on foot from the centre, and 5 UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach against 3.
Families lean to Naples as well: 3 theme parks within reach against 1, many times as much park space near the centre, and 7% of the surrounding land protected for walks and outings.
What the numbers don't tell you
The beach figures leave the two almost level, but they describe supply rather than space. Dubrovnik counts 43 beaches for a town of 41,600 people, and its best swimming weeks are the same weeks everyone else picks, while Naples spreads its visitors across a city many times the size.
The daily budget figures, €138 and €155, are national estimates for Croatia and Italy, price levels for restaurants and hotels rather than measurements of either city. A heavily visited town can sit well above its own country's average, so the gap between the two national figures says little about what either trip costs.
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). Naples: 1991-2020 normals, Grazzanise (28.3 km from centre).
Dubrovnik is at its best from June to August, when highs run 26-29°C, the sea sits at 23-26°C and rain falls to 54mm in July. Autumn turns wet quickly, 145mm in October and 192mm in November.
Naples holds a longer season. May and September sit at 24°C and 28°C, July and August are hotter at 31°C with only 17-18mm of rain, and October still reaches 23°C, though 92mm of rain comes with it.
Getting there
| Flying from | Dubrovnik | Naples |
|---|---|---|
| LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2 | 2 h 40 m no fares DBV · 16 km | 2 h 35 m €90-167 1 stop NAP · 7 km |
| MilanMXP, BGY, LIN | 1 h 45 m €59-120 1 stop TGD · 99 km | 1 h 30 m €35-109 NAP · 7 km |
| ParisCDG, ORY, BVA | 2 h 20 m €63-108 DBV · 16 km | 2 h 10 m €108-170 NAP · 7 km |
| ZagrebZAG | 1 h 10 m no fares DBV · 16 km | 1 h 20 m no fares NAP · 7 km |
| ViennaVIE | 1 h 25 m €66-134 DBV · 16 km | 1 h 40 m €125-207 1 stop NAP · 7 km |
| RomeFCO, CIA | 1 h 15 m €55-130 DBV · 16 km | 55 m no fares NAP · 7 km |
| MunichMUC | 1 h 40 m €240-268 DBV · 16 km | 1 h 40 m €157-224 1 stop NAP · 7 km |
| MadridMAD | 2 h 50 m no fares DBV · 16 km | 2 h 25 m no fares NAP · 7 km |
| Tel Aviv YafoTLV | 2 h 50 m €274-389 TIV · 57 km | 3 h 5 m no fares NAP · 7 km |
| New YorkJFK, EWR, LGA | 9 h 10 m no fares DBV · 16 km | 9 h 0 m no fares NAP · 7 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 | Naples |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | Croatian | Italian |
| Currency | Euro (EUR) | Euro (EUR) |
| Sockets | CF230 V, 50 Hz | CFL230 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 | 17 m |
| Main airport | Dubrovnik Ruđer Bošković Airport (DBV)16 km from centre74 non-stop destinations | Naples International Airport (NAP)7 km from centre131 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 14 days | 13 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Dubrovnik | Naples |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 41,562 | 913,462 |
| People per km² | – | 7,676 |
| Museums within 10 km | 7 | 65 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 3 | 5 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 32 | 31 |
| Swim season, months above 21 °C | 5 months | 5 months |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Dubrovnik or Naples somewhere new.