VacationSelector
The Sanctuary of Truth by the sea, Pattaya
PattayaThe Sanctuary of Truth by the sea
People's Square (Narodni trg), Zadar
ZadarPeople's Square (Narodni trg)

Photos: Pattaya by Matrix, Pexels License; Zadar by Böhringer Friedrich, CC BY-SA 2.5, cropped.

Pattaya 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 Pattaya for

  • nightlife
  • prices
  • wellness

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

Choose Zadar for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • culture and sights
  • 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. Pattaya 66, Zadar 72: Zadar leads by 6 points.
Food & drink. Pattaya 58, Zadar 45: Pattaya leads by 13 points.
Culture & sights. Pattaya 30, Zadar 55: Zadar leads by 25 points.
Nightlife. Pattaya 76, Zadar 38: Pattaya leads by 38 points.
Nature & outdoors. Pattaya 40, Zadar 82: Zadar leads by 42 points.
Day trips. Pattaya 52, Zadar 70: Zadar leads by 18 points.
Good for families. Pattaya and Zadar are level on 55.
Getting around. Pattaya 36, Zadar 58: Zadar leads by 22 points.
Shopping & style. Pattaya 42, Zadar 27: Pattaya leads by 15 points.
Affordability. Pattaya 84, Zadar 52: Pattaya leads by 32 points.
Live music & performing arts. Pattaya 30, Zadar 28: Pattaya leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Pattaya 58, Zadar 35: Pattaya leads by 23 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Pattaya and Zadar.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Pattaya
52match

Wins on nightlife and prices with your weighting.

Zadar
51match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and culture and sights with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Pattaya in July

32 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
102 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
30 °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

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
PattayaZadar

Where the figures come from

Pattaya's temperatures are measured 31 km from the centre, at Sattahip.

Pattaya 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.

Pattaya's sunshine is measured 86 km from the centre, at Bangna Agromet / Ban Khlong Samrong.

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. Pattaya: 1971-2000 (sunshine 1961-1990, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Sattahip (31.2 km from centre). Zadar: 1999-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Zadar / Zemunik (9.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePattayaZadar
Official languageThaiCroatian
CurrencyBaht (THB)Euro (EUR)
SocketsABCF220 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+7UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199112
Elevation35 m5 m
Main airportSuvarnabhumi Airport (BKK)83 km from centre150 non-stop destinationsZadar Airport (ZAD)10 km from centre66 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-14 days

By the numbers

MeasurePattayaZadar
City population119,53270,779
Museums within 10 km01
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 Pattaya or Zadar somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national 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). 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. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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.