VacationSelector
The Scott Monument and Princes Street Gardens, Edinburgh
EdinburghThe Scott Monument and Princes Street Gardens
People's Square (Narodni trg), Zadar
ZadarPeople's Square (Narodni trg)

Photos: Edinburgh by Carlos Delgado, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Zadar by Böhringer Friedrich, CC BY-SA 2.5, cropped.

Edinburgh 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 Edinburgh for

  • live music and the arts
  • shopping
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Edinburgh’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. Edinburgh 22, Zadar 72: Zadar leads by 50 points.
Food & drink. Edinburgh 53, Zadar 45: Edinburgh leads by 8 points.
Culture & sights. Edinburgh 75, Zadar 55: Edinburgh leads by 20 points.
Nightlife. Edinburgh 50, Zadar 38: Edinburgh leads by 12 points.
Nature & outdoors. Edinburgh 75, Zadar 82: Zadar leads by 7 points.
Day trips. Edinburgh 75, Zadar 70: Edinburgh leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Edinburgh 62, Zadar 55: Edinburgh leads by 7 points.
Getting around. Edinburgh 74, Zadar 58: Edinburgh leads by 16 points.
Shopping & style. Edinburgh 50, Zadar 27: Edinburgh leads by 23 points.
Affordability. Edinburgh 30, Zadar 52: Zadar leads by 22 points.
Live music & performing arts. Edinburgh 72, Zadar 28: Edinburgh leads by 44 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Edinburgh 34, Zadar 35: Zadar leads by 1 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Edinburgh
Best match
56match

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.

Edinburgh in July

19 °Cdaytime high
11 °Cnight-time low
66 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
14 °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
EdinburghZadar

Where the figures come from

Edinburgh 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.

Edinburgh's sunshine is measured 52 km from the centre, at Leuchars.

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. Edinburgh: 1991-2020 normals, Edinburgh Airport (10 km from centre). Zadar: 1999-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Zadar / Zemunik (9.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEdinburghZadar
Official languageEnglishCroatian
CurrencyPound Sterling (GBP)Euro (EUR)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112 or 999112
Elevation47 m5 m
Main airportEdinburgh Airport (EDI)11 km from centre163 non-stop destinationsZadar Airport (ZAD)10 km from centre66 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureEdinburghZadar
City population488,05070,779
People per km²1,884-
Museums within 10 km321
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km32
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 Edinburgh 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). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm.

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.