VacationSelector
The Manila Central Post Office on the Pasig, Manila
ManilaThe Manila Central Post Office on the Pasig
People's Square (Narodni trg), Zadar
ZadarPeople's Square (Narodni trg)

Photos: Manila by Kenneth Surillo, Pexels License; Zadar by Böhringer Friedrich, CC BY-SA 2.5, cropped.

Manila 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 Manila for

  • shopping
  • nightlife
  • prices

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

Choose Zadar for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • 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. Manila 12, Zadar 72: Zadar leads by 60 points.
Food & drink. Manila 64, Zadar 45: Manila leads by 19 points.
Culture & sights. Manila 54, Zadar 55: Zadar leads by 1 points.
Nightlife. Manila 64, Zadar 38: Manila leads by 26 points.
Nature & outdoors. Manila 40, Zadar 82: Zadar leads by 42 points.
Day trips. Manila 42, Zadar 70: Zadar leads by 28 points.
Good for families. Manila 42, Zadar 55: Zadar leads by 13 points.
Getting around. Manila 26, Zadar 58: Zadar leads by 32 points.
Shopping & style. Manila 60, Zadar 27: Manila leads by 33 points.
Affordability. Manila 77, Zadar 52: Manila leads by 25 points.
Live music & performing arts. Manila 50, Zadar 28: Manila leads by 22 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Manila 40, Zadar 35: Manila leads by 5 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Manila and Zadar.

Your match

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

Manila
48match

Wins on shopping and nightlife with your weighting.

Zadar
Best match
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.

Manila in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
487 mmrain in the month
29 °Csea
13 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

0200400600JFMAMJJASOND
ManilaZadar

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. Manila: 1991-2020 normals, Science Garden (6 km from centre). Zadar: 1999-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Zadar / Zemunik (9.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureManilaZadar
Official languageEnglish, Filipino, TaglishCroatian
CurrencyPhilippine Peso (PHP)Euro (EUR)
SocketsABC220 V, 60 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+8UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation9 m5 m
Main airportNinoy Aquino International Airport (MNL)11 km from centre90 non-stop destinationsZadar Airport (ZAD)10 km from centre66 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year18 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureManilaZadar
City population1,902,59070,779
People per km²76,104-
Museums within 10 km271
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km12
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 Manila 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). 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. 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.