Dubrovnik or Rovinj?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Wins on sights concentration and museums & heritage with your weighting.
Wins on nature & day trips 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 you want a compact old centre where the sights, museums and restaurants sit within walking distance, and warmer, longer swimming, with the sea at 21°C or more for five months.
Choose Rovinj if you prefer a small town of 13,000 people, more park space and theme parks for children, and drier autumns and winters if you travel outside summer.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Dubrovnik leads by 4 points.4
| Dubrovnik | Rovinj | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 77 | 73 |
| Swim season months | 5 | 4 |
| Beaches 10 km | 43 | 55 |
| Coast distance | 0 km | 1 km |
| Water distance | 0 km | 1 km |
Places to eat. Dubrovnik leads by 11 points.11
| Dubrovnik | Rovinj | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 38 | 27 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 206 | 130 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 18 | 14 |
Museums & heritage. Dubrovnik leads by 21 points.21
| Dubrovnik | Rovinj | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 49 | 28 |
| Museums within 10 km | 18 | 5 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 17 | 4 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 94 | 80 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 3 | 1 |
Nightlife. Dubrovnik leads by 11 points.11
| Dubrovnik | Rovinj | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 20 | 9 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 128 | 75 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 110 | 66 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 86 | 88 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 13 | 5 |
Nature & day trips. Rovinj leads by 5 points.5
| Dubrovnik | Rovinj | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 5 | 10 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 4 | 2 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 4 | 0 |
| Land share of disc % | 51 | 38 |
| Park area within 2 km | 6 hectares | 8 hectares |
Good for families. Dubrovnik leads by 2 points.2
| Dubrovnik | Rovinj | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 21 | 19 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 12 | 6 |
| Park area within 2 km | 6 hectares | 8 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 1 | 3 |
Sights concentration. Dubrovnik leads by 44 points.44
| Dubrovnik | Rovinj | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 44 | 0 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 48 | 2 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Dubrovnik and Rovinj are level on 80.
| Dubrovnik | Rovinj | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 80 | 80 |
| Price level global | 48.5 | 48.5 |
| Daily budget | €138 | €138 |
Year-round weather. Dubrovnik and Rovinj are level on 65.
| Dubrovnik | Rovinj | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 65 | 65 |
| Monthly daytime high | 11 °C to 29.1 °C | 8.8 °C to 29.1 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 54 mm to 198 mm | 51 mm to 125 mm |
| Dry months | 0 | 0 |
Where they differ
Dubrovnik packs more into walking range: many times as many notable places near the centre, about three times as many museums, and 3 UNESCO-listed sites within day-trip reach against Rovinj's 1. It also has roughly twice as many restaurants near the centre, a wider spread of kitchens, and twice the bars.
Rovinj offers more park space near the centre and 3 theme parks within reach against Dubrovnik's 1, plus 55 beaches nearby against 43, with the sea 1km from the centre.
Where they are alike
Both share the same climate pattern: highs of 11-29°C in Dubrovnik and 9-29°C in Rovinj, and neither has a month at 40mm of rain or less, so a dry-guaranteed trip is not on offer.
They are also close on swimming, families and outings: the sea reaches 26°C at its warmest in both, beaches are plentiful near each, attractions for children are limited, and protected land is thin around both, so neither stands out for days away from town.
Which traveller are you?
A traveller who wants heritage on foot should take Dubrovnik: about three times as many museums, 3 UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach, and almost everything worth seeing inside a walkable centre.
Families with young children lean to Rovinj: more park space near the centre and 3 theme parks against Dubrovnik's 1, though Dubrovnik keeps more tourist attractions near its centre.
Swimmers can take either. Dubrovnik puts the sea at its centre and keeps it at 21°C or more later into autumn, while Rovinj has 55 beaches nearby and a 1km walk to the water.
What the numbers don't tell you
The value figures are identical because they come from a national price level, not from either town, so the comparison here tells you nothing about which trip costs less. The daily budget of €138 is one national estimate; treat it as a country figure rather than a trait of Dubrovnik or Rovinj.
Strong beach standing hides the crowding that comes with it: both are small towns, Rovinj at 13,000 residents, and their best months are the same weeks everyone else picks. September still looks warm but brings 143mm of rain in Dubrovnik, so a summer profile does not carry into the shoulder season.
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). Rovinj: 1991-2020 normals, Trieste (63.7 km from centre).
Dubrovnik's best stretch is June to September, with highs of 26-29°C, sea at 23-26°C and its driest weather of the year, near 54mm at the height of summer. From autumn it is the wetter of the two, reaching 198mm in December.
Rovinj suits the shoulder season and winter better on rain alone, about 51mm in January against Dubrovnik's 141mm, though highs then sit at 9°C. Its swimming window is shorter, with the sea warmest in July and August, and cooler than Dubrovnik's through spring.
Getting there
| Flying from | Dubrovnik | Rovinj |
|---|---|---|
| MadridMAD | 2 h 50 m no fares DBV · 16 km | 2 h 20 m €102-159 VCE · 111 km |
| LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2 | 2 h 40 m no fares DBV · 16 km | 2 h 10 m no fares PUY · 31 km |
| AmsterdamAMS | 2 h 25 m €182-228 1 stop DBV · 16 km | 1 h 45 m €190-215 1 stop VCE · 111 km |
| ViennaVIE | 1 h 25 m €66-134 DBV · 16 km | 1 h 10 m €65-121 VCE · 111 km |
| RomeFCO, CIA | 1 h 15 m €55-130 DBV · 16 km | 1 h 10 m no fares TRS · 84 km |
| MunichMUC | 1 h 40 m €240-268 DBV · 16 km | 1 h 5 m €268-289 VCE · 111 km |
| ManchesterMAN | 2 h 55 m no fares DBV · 16 km | 2 h 15 m €79-96 VCE · 111 km |
| ZagrebZAG | 1 h 10 m no fares DBV · 16 km | 55 m no fares PUY · 31 km |
| New YorkJFK, EWR, LGA | 9 h 10 m no fares DBV · 16 km | 8 h 30 m €637-650 VCE · 111 km |
| DubaiDXB, DWC | 5 h 15 m no fares DBV · 16 km | 5 h 55 m €366-421 2 stops VCE · 111 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 2026-09 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 | Rovinj |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | Croatian | Croatian |
| 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 | 0 m |
| Main airport | Dubrovnik Ruđer Bošković Airport (DBV)16 km from centre74 non-stop destinations | Pula Airport (PUY)31 km from centre34 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 14 days | 14 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Dubrovnik | Rovinj |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 41,562 | 12,968 |
| Museums within 10 km | 7 | 1 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 3 | 1 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 32 | 22 |
| Swim season, months above 21 °C | 5 months | 4 months |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Dubrovnik or Rovinj somewhere new.