VacationSelector
The Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower, Johannesburg
JohannesburgThe Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower
People's Square (Narodni trg), Zadar
ZadarPeople's Square (Narodni trg)

Photos: Johannesburg by K, Pexels License; Zadar by Böhringer Friedrich, CC BY-SA 2.5, cropped.

Johannesburg 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 Johannesburg for

  • shopping
  • live music and the arts
  • nightlife

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

Choose Zadar for

  • beaches
  • getting around
  • 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. Johannesburg 5, Zadar 72: Zadar leads by 67 points.
Food & drink. Johannesburg 58, Zadar 45: Johannesburg leads by 13 points.
Culture & sights. Johannesburg 56, Zadar 55: Johannesburg leads by 1 points.
Nightlife. Johannesburg 62, Zadar 38: Johannesburg leads by 24 points.
Nature & outdoors. Johannesburg 55, Zadar 82: Zadar leads by 27 points.
Day trips. Johannesburg 52, Zadar 70: Zadar leads by 18 points.
Good for families. Johannesburg 42, Zadar 55: Zadar leads by 13 points.
Getting around. Johannesburg 18, Zadar 58: Zadar leads by 40 points.
Shopping & style. Johannesburg 58, Zadar 27: Johannesburg leads by 31 points.
Affordability. Johannesburg 72, Zadar 52: Johannesburg leads by 20 points.
Live music & performing arts. Johannesburg 55, Zadar 28: Johannesburg leads by 27 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Johannesburg 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: Johannesburg and Zadar.

Your match

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

Johannesburg
47match

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

Zadar
Best match
51match

Wins on beaches and getting around with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Johannesburg in July

19 °Cdaytime high
4 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
No seasea
11 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
JohannesburgZadar

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. Johannesburg: 2005-2019 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Johannesburg B / Roosevelt Park (7.3 km from centre). Zadar: 1999-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Zadar / Zemunik (9.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureJohannesburgZadar
Official languageEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign LanguageCroatian
CurrencyRand (ZAR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCMN230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+2UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation1,753 m5 m
Main airportO.R. Tambo International Airport (JNB)22 km from centre84 non-stop destinationsZadar Airport (ZAD)10 km from centre66 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureJohannesburgZadar
City population4,803,26270,779
People per km²2,922-
Museums within 10 km141
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km22
Swim season, months above 21 °C-4 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Johannesburg 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. 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.