Ljubljana or Zadar?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Too close to call, level with your weighting
Wins on places to eat and sights concentration with your weighting.
Wins on beaches & swimming and nature & day trips with your weighting.
What matters to you?
Pick a travel style or drag the sliders. The match scores above update as you do.
The verdict
Choose Ljubljana if your trip is built around walking. Notable places sit close together in the centre, there are about twice as many restaurants and a wider range of kitchens, and about three times as many museums.
Choose Zadar if the sea is the point: 49 beaches nearby against Ljubljana's 10, and water warm enough for swimming across four months from early summer.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Zadar leads by 73 points.73
| Ljubljana | Zadar | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 0 | 73 |
| Swim season months | 0 | 4 |
| Beaches 10 km | 10 | 49 |
| Coast distance | 72 km | 0 km |
| Water distance | — | 0 km |
Places to eat. Ljubljana leads by 30 points.30
| Ljubljana | Zadar | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 55 | 25 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 292 | 143 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 40 | 11 |
Museums & heritage. Ljubljana leads by 22 points.22
| Ljubljana | Zadar | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 55 | 33 |
| Museums within 10 km | 26 | 8 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 23 | 8 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 88 | 100 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 3 | 2 |
Nightlife. Ljubljana leads by 20 points.20
| Ljubljana | Zadar | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 45 | 25 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 458 | 194 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 284 | 139 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 62 | 72 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 24 | 4 |
Nature & day trips. Zadar leads by 15 points.15
| Ljubljana | Zadar | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 40 | 55 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 13 | 12 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 5 | 0 |
| Land share of disc % | 100 | 47 |
| Park area within 2 km | 75 hectares | 30 hectares |
Good for families. Ljubljana leads by 7 points.7
| Ljubljana | Zadar | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 38 | 31 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 12 | 9 |
| Park area within 2 km | 75 hectares | 30 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 0 | 1 |
Sights concentration. Ljubljana leads by 27 points.27
| Ljubljana | Zadar | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 58 | 31 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 109 | 23 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Zadar leads by 8 points.8
| Ljubljana | Zadar | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 72 | 80 |
| Price level global | 59.6 | 48.5 |
| Daily budget | €131 | €138 |
Year-round weather. Zadar leads by 13 points.13
| Ljubljana | Zadar | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 56 | 69 |
| Monthly daytime high | 4.1 °C to 27.9 °C | 10.4 °C to 31 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 67 mm to 159 mm | 25 mm to 117 mm |
| Dry months | 0 | 2 |
Where they differ
Ljubljana has about twice as many restaurants near the centre and a much wider range of kitchens, many times as many notable places within walking distance of the centre, and about three times as many museums, with more UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach. It also has about twice as many places to drink and many more nightclubs.
Zadar answers with water: 49 beaches nearby against Ljubljana's 10, and sea at 21°C or more for four months. It runs warmer, 10-31°C across the year against 4-28°C.
Where they are alike
Neither is a natural first choice for young children. Ljubljana has somewhat more attractions near the centre and more park space; Zadar has 1 theme park within reach where Ljubljana has none.
On price and climate they are close too: the national daily budget estimates behind them are €131 for Slovenia and €138 for Croatia, and both are at their warmest in July and cool sharply by December.
Which traveller are you?
Someone after museums, galleries and long dinners should take Ljubljana: about three times as many museums, twice as many restaurants with a wider range of kitchens, and a centre where the notable places sit within walking distance.
A swimmer belongs in Zadar: 49 beaches nearby, sea reaching 25°C in late summer and highs of 31°C, with midsummer its driest stretch and little reason to plan around rain.
Families get less from either. Zadar has 1 theme park within reach and the beaches; Ljubljana has more park space near the centre and somewhat more attractions to fill a day. Neither is built around children.
What the numbers don't tell you
The daily budget figures, €131 and €138, are national estimates for Slovenia and Croatia, price levels for restaurants and hotels rather than measurements of either city. A capital and a heavily visited coastal town can each sit far from their own national average, by more than the gap between these two figures, so the gap between them is not evidence about either city.
No weather station near Zadar records sunshine hours, so that series is missing rather than low, and its monthly picture rests on temperature, rainfall and sea temperature alone. Its beach count says nothing about high-season crowding, and Ljubljana's warmest months are also among its wettest.
When should you go?
The figures behind each month. Each row is shaded against that destination's own year, so the deepest cell is its best month for that measure and the palest its weakest. Shades are not comparable between the two rows.
Temperature and rainfall are thirty-year climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Ljubljana: 1991-2020 normals, Ljubljana / Bezigrad (1.9 km from centre). Zadar: 1999-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Zadar / Zemunik (9.9 km from centre).
Ljubljana peaks in high summer, with highs of 26-28°C from June to August, but rain is persistent at 114-126mm a month, and autumn is wetter still, at 150-159mm. May is the drier, milder alternative if you would rather walk than sit out a shower.
Zadar holds up longer. Early summer and September bring highs of 26-28°C with sea at 22-23°C, and midsummer is its driest stretch, 25-32mm a month, with sea reaching 25°C. Late autumn turns wet, near 117mm.
Getting there
| Flying from | Ljubljana | Zadar |
|---|---|---|
| RomeFCO, CIA | 1 h 10 m no fares TRS · 84 km | 1 h 5 m €294 SPU · 107 km |
| AmsterdamAMS | 1 h 50 m no fares LJU · 20 km | 2 h 10 m €186-201 1 stop SPU · 107 km |
| ParisCDG, ORY, BVA | 1 h 45 m €139-178 1 stop LJU · 20 km | 2 h 5 m €169-225 SPU · 107 km |
| ViennaVIE | 1 h 0 m no fares ZAG · 126 km | 1 h 10 m €45-192 ZAD · 10 km |
| DubrovnikDBV | 1 h 10 m no fares ZAG · 126 km | 55 m no fares SPU · 107 km |
| MunichMUC | 1 h 0 m no fares LJU · 20 km | 1 h 25 m no fares SPU · 107 km |
| LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2 | 2 h 5 m no fares LJU · 20 km | 2 h 20 m no fares ZAD · 10 km |
| FrankfurtFRA, HHN | 1 h 25 m no fares LJU · 20 km | 1 h 40 m €161-226 1 stop ZAD · 10 km |
| ZurichZRH | 1 h 15 m no fares LJU · 20 km | 1 h 35 m €247-298 1 stop SPU · 107 km |
| IstanbulIST, SAW | 2 h 10 m €188-190 LJU · 20 km | 1 h 55 m no fares SPU · 107 km |
The busiest departure cities for these two, with a place kept for each other part of the world. Busiest means arriving passengers where an official count exists, and where none does, the number of non-stop services flown: official route statistics are published by the European reporting countries and by nobody else, so a table ranked on them alone would offer a reader in New York or Tokyo ten European cities. Flying times are estimated from the distance between airports, and every row is a city flown non-stop to both. Where the typical offer connects anyway, the stops are shown. Under each figure is the airport the flight lands at and how far that is from the centre, because the nearest airport is not always the one a route is flown to. Where both columns name the same airport it is one flight, and the difference between the two is the distance printed beside it. Typical return fares for 2026-09 to 2026-10, cached market data up to 7 days old. The figure is the middle half of the offers found, so a single price means they agreed and a range means they did not; for a typical route that middle half spans about a quarter of the median, and for the least settled routes rather more than the median itself.
Before you go
| Measure | Ljubljana | Zadar |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | Slovene | Croatian |
| Currency | Euro (EUR) | Euro (EUR) |
| Sockets | CF230 V, 50 Hz | CF230 V, 50 Hz |
| Driving side | Right | Right |
| Time zone | UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer | UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer |
| Emergency number | 112 | 112 |
| Elevation | 309 m | 5 m |
| Main airport | Ljubljana Jože Pučnik Airport (LJU)20 km from centre28 non-stop destinations | Zadar Airport (ZAD)10 km from centre67 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 21 days | 14 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Ljubljana | Zadar |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 284,293 | 70,779 |
| People per km² | 1,736 | – |
| Museums within 10 km | 14 | 1 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 3 | 2 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 63 | 17 |
| 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 Ljubljana or Zadar somewhere new.