VacationSelector
The yellow Palacio Canton on Paseo de Montejo, Merida
MeridaThe yellow Palacio Canton on Paseo de Montejo
People's Square (Narodni trg), Zadar
ZadarPeople's Square (Narodni trg)

Photos: Merida by Mariposa2723, CC BY 4.0, cropped; Zadar by Böhringer Friedrich, CC BY-SA 2.5, cropped.

Merida 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 Merida for

  • food and drink
  • live music and the arts
  • shopping

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

Choose Zadar for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • beaches
  • 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. Merida 50, Zadar 72: Zadar leads by 22 points.
Food & drink. Merida 72, Zadar 45: Merida leads by 27 points.
Culture & sights. Merida 64, Zadar 55: Merida leads by 9 points.
Nightlife. Merida 42, Zadar 38: Merida leads by 4 points.
Nature & outdoors. Merida 48, Zadar 82: Zadar leads by 34 points.
Day trips. Merida 80, Zadar 70: Merida leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Merida 50, Zadar 55: Zadar leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Merida 45, Zadar 58: Zadar leads by 13 points.
Shopping & style. Merida 50, Zadar 27: Merida leads by 23 points.
Affordability. Merida 75, Zadar 52: Merida leads by 23 points.
Live music & performing arts. Merida 52, Zadar 28: Merida leads by 24 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Merida 40, Zadar 35: Merida leads by 5 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Merida and Zadar.

Your match

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

Merida
Best match
56match

Wins on food and drink and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Zadar
51match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and beaches with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Merida in July

35 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
148 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
27 °Csea
13 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

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
MeridaZadar

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. Merida: 1991-2020 normals, Merida / lic Manuel Crecencio (5.1 km from centre). Zadar: 1999-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Zadar / Zemunik (9.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMeridaZadar
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaCroatian
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation12 m5 m
Main airportManuel Crescencio Rejón International Airport (MID)5 km from centre22 non-stop destinationsZadar Airport (ZAD)10 km from centre66 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureMeridaZadar
City population892,36370,779
People per km²1,010-
Museums within 10 km51
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 Merida 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.