VacationSelector
Turquoise water off Giftun Island, Hurghada
HurghadaTurquoise water off Giftun Island
People's Square (Narodni trg), Zadar
ZadarPeople's Square (Narodni trg)

Photos: Hurghada by Andrey Korchagin, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Zadar by Böhringer Friedrich, CC BY-SA 2.5, cropped.

Hurghada 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 Hurghada for

  • prices
  • beaches
  • wellness

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

Choose Zadar for

  • culture and sights
  • day trips
  • getting around

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. Hurghada 84, Zadar 72: Hurghada leads by 12 points.
Food & drink. Hurghada 34, Zadar 45: Zadar leads by 11 points.
Culture & sights. Hurghada 14, Zadar 55: Zadar leads by 41 points.
Nightlife. Hurghada 40, Zadar 38: Hurghada leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Hurghada 72, Zadar 82: Zadar leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Hurghada 30, Zadar 70: Zadar leads by 40 points.
Good for families. Hurghada 62, Zadar 55: Hurghada leads by 7 points.
Getting around. Hurghada 22, Zadar 58: Zadar leads by 36 points.
Shopping & style. Hurghada 24, Zadar 27: Zadar leads by 3 points.
Affordability. Hurghada 80, Zadar 52: Hurghada leads by 28 points.
Live music & performing arts. Hurghada 10, Zadar 28: Zadar leads by 18 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Hurghada 44, Zadar 35: Hurghada leads by 9 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Hurghada
43match

Wins on prices and beaches with your weighting.

Zadar
Best match
51match

Wins on culture and sights and day trips with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Hurghada in July

37 °Cdaytime high
28 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
28 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Zadar in July

31 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
29 mmrain in the month
24 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
HurghadaZadar

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. Hurghada: 1991-2020 normals, Hurguada (15.2 km from centre). Zadar: 1999-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Zadar / Zemunik (9.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureHurghadaZadar
Official languageArabicCroatian
CurrencyEgyptian Pound (EGP)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCF220 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+2, UTC+3 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 122, ambulance 123, fire 180112
Elevation11 m5 m
Main airportHurghada International Airport (HRG)9 km from centre111 non-stop destinationsZadar Airport (ZAD)10 km from centre66 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year15 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureHurghadaZadar
City population214,24770,779
Museums within 10 km11
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months4 months

Where else could you go?

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