VacationSelector
Galway Cathedral from the River Corrib, Galway
GalwayGalway Cathedral from the River Corrib
People's Square (Narodni trg), Zadar
ZadarPeople's Square (Narodni trg)

Photos: Galway by Dieglop, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Zadar by Böhringer Friedrich, CC BY-SA 2.5, cropped.

Galway 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 Galway for

  • live music and the arts
  • nightlife
  • shopping

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

Choose Zadar for

  • beaches
  • prices
  • culture and sights

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. Galway 28, Zadar 72: Zadar leads by 44 points.
Food & drink. Galway and Zadar are level on 45.
Culture & sights. Galway 33, Zadar 55: Zadar leads by 22 points.
Nightlife. Galway 50, Zadar 38: Galway leads by 12 points.
Nature & outdoors. Galway 78, Zadar 82: Zadar leads by 4 points.
Day trips. Galway 56, Zadar 70: Zadar leads by 14 points.
Good for families. Galway 42, Zadar 55: Zadar leads by 13 points.
Getting around. Galway and Zadar are level on 58.
Shopping & style. Galway 38, Zadar 27: Galway leads by 11 points.
Affordability. Galway 28, Zadar 52: Zadar leads by 24 points.
Live music & performing arts. Galway 57, Zadar 28: Galway leads by 29 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Galway 28, Zadar 35: Zadar leads by 7 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Galway and Zadar.

Your match

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

Galway
45match

Wins on live music and the arts and nightlife with your weighting.

Zadar
Best match
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.

Galway in July

20 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
91 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
16 °Csea
16 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

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
GalwayZadar

Where the figures come from

Galway's temperatures are measured 64 km from the centre, at Shannon Airport.

Galway 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.

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. Galway: 1991-2020 normals, Shannon Airport (64.2 km from centre). Zadar: 1999-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Zadar / Zemunik (9.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureGalwayZadar
Official languageEnglish, IrishCroatian
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation25 m5 m
Main airportShannon Airport (SNN)64 km from centre39 non-stop destinationsZadar Airport (ZAD)10 km from centre66 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureGalwayZadar
City population83,45670,779
People per km²1,563-
Museums within 10 km41
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
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 Galway 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.