VacationSelector
A yellow tram in a narrow street, Lisbon
LisbonA yellow tram in a narrow street
People's Square (Narodni trg), Zadar
ZadarPeople's Square (Narodni trg)

Photos: Lisbon by Riccardo Toso, Pexels License; Zadar by Böhringer Friedrich, CC BY-SA 2.5, cropped.

Lisbon 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 Lisbon for

  • nightlife
  • shopping
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Zadar for

  • beaches
  • 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. Lisbon 50, Zadar 72: Zadar leads by 22 points.
Food & drink. Lisbon 75, Zadar 45: Lisbon leads by 30 points.
Culture & sights. Lisbon 78, Zadar 55: Lisbon leads by 23 points.
Nightlife. Lisbon 75, Zadar 38: Lisbon leads by 37 points.
Nature & outdoors. Lisbon 75, Zadar 82: Zadar leads by 7 points.
Day trips. Lisbon 82, Zadar 70: Lisbon leads by 12 points.
Good for families. Lisbon 62, Zadar 55: Lisbon leads by 7 points.
Getting around. Lisbon 66, Zadar 58: Lisbon leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. Lisbon 60, Zadar 27: Lisbon leads by 33 points.
Affordability. Lisbon 55, Zadar 52: Lisbon leads by 3 points.
Live music & performing arts. Lisbon 60, Zadar 28: Lisbon leads by 32 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Lisbon 36, Zadar 35: Lisbon leads by 1 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Lisbon
Best match
65match

Wins on nightlife and shopping with your weighting.

Zadar
51match

Wins on beaches 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.

Lisbon in July

28 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
3 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
15 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
LisbonZadar

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. Lisbon: 1991-2020 normals, Lisboa / Geof (1.1 km from centre). Zadar: 1999-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Zadar / Zemunik (9.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLisbonZadar
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
Elevation100 m5 m
Main airportLisbon Humberto Delgado Airport (LIS)7 km from centre156 non-stop destinationsZadar Airport (ZAD)10 km from centre66 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureLisbonZadar
City population545,79670,779
People per km²5,453-
Museums within 10 km801
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 Lisbon 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.