VacationSelector
Waterfront houses on Harbor Island in Newport Harbor, Newport Beach
Newport BeachWaterfront houses on Harbor Island in Newport Harbor
People's Square (Narodni trg), Zadar
ZadarPeople's Square (Narodni trg)

Photos: Newport Beach by Don Ramey Logan, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Zadar by Böhringer Friedrich, CC BY-SA 2.5, cropped.

Newport Beach 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 Newport Beach for

  • shopping
  • families
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Zadar for

  • getting around
  • prices
  • culture and sights

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. Newport Beach 70, Zadar 72: Zadar leads by 2 points.
Food & drink. Newport Beach 50, Zadar 45: Newport Beach leads by 5 points.
Culture & sights. Newport Beach 20, Zadar 55: Zadar leads by 35 points.
Nightlife. Newport Beach 33, Zadar 38: Zadar leads by 5 points.
Nature & outdoors. Newport Beach 66, Zadar 82: Zadar leads by 16 points.
Day trips. Newport Beach and Zadar are level on 70.
Good for families. Newport Beach 80, Zadar 55: Newport Beach leads by 25 points.
Getting around. Newport Beach 20, Zadar 58: Zadar leads by 38 points.
Shopping & style. Newport Beach 62, Zadar 27: Newport Beach leads by 35 points.
Affordability. Newport Beach 15, Zadar 52: Zadar leads by 37 points.
Live music & performing arts. Newport Beach 46, Zadar 28: Newport Beach leads by 18 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Newport Beach 44, Zadar 35: Newport Beach leads by 9 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Newport Beach
48match

Wins on shopping and families with your weighting.

Zadar
Best match
51match

Wins on getting around and prices with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Newport Beach in July

26 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
20 °Csea
14 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

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
Newport BeachZadar

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. Newport Beach: 1991-2020 (rainfall 1981-2010) normals, Santa Ana / Paularino (7.1 km from centre). Zadar: 1999-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Zadar / Zemunik (9.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureNewport BeachZadar
Official language-Croatian
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-8, UTC-7 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation3 m5 m
Main airportJohn Wayne Orange County International Airport (SNA)7 km from centre53 non-stop destinationsZadar Airport (ZAD)10 km from centre66 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureNewport BeachZadar
City population85,23970,779
People per km²622-
Museums within 10 km41
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
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 Newport Beach 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.