VacationSelector
A jetty on the lagoon, Faro
FaroA jetty on the lagoon
People's Square (Narodni trg), Zadar
ZadarPeople's Square (Narodni trg)

Photos: Faro by Efrem Efre, Pexels License; Zadar by Böhringer Friedrich, CC BY-SA 2.5, cropped.

Faro 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 Faro for

  • shopping
  • prices
  • families

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

Choose Zadar for

  • culture and sights
  • nature and the outdoors
  • nightlife

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. Faro 74, Zadar 72: Faro leads by 2 points.
Food & drink. Faro 48, Zadar 45: Faro leads by 3 points.
Culture & sights. Faro 35, Zadar 55: Zadar leads by 20 points.
Nightlife. Faro 32, Zadar 38: Zadar leads by 6 points.
Nature & outdoors. Faro 62, Zadar 82: Zadar leads by 20 points.
Day trips. Faro 64, Zadar 70: Zadar leads by 6 points.
Good for families. Faro 60, Zadar 55: Faro leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Faro 60, Zadar 58: Faro leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Faro 35, Zadar 27: Faro leads by 8 points.
Affordability. Faro 60, Zadar 52: Faro leads by 8 points.
Live music & performing arts. Faro 30, Zadar 28: Faro leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Faro 33, Zadar 35: Zadar leads by 2 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Faro 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

Faro
49match

Wins on shopping and prices with your weighting.

Zadar
51match

Wins on culture and sights and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Faro in July

29 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
21 °Csea
14 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
FaroZadar

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. Faro: 1991-2020 normals, Faro / Aeroporto (2.8 km from centre). Zadar: 1999-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Zadar / Zemunik (9.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureFaroZadar
Official languagePortugueseCroatian
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation10 m5 m
Main airportFaro - Gago Coutinho International Airport (FAO)3 km from centre91 non-stop destinationsZadar Airport (ZAD)10 km from centre66 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureFaroZadar
City population64,56070,779
People per km²319-
Museums within 10 km21
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
Swim season, months above 21 °C3 months4 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Faro 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.