VacationSelector
Hawthorne Bridge and downtown, Portland
PortlandHawthorne Bridge and downtown
People's Square (Narodni trg), Zadar
ZadarPeople's Square (Narodni trg)

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

Portland 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 Portland for

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

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

Choose Zadar for

  • beaches
  • culture and sights
  • prices

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. Portland 20, Zadar 72: Zadar leads by 52 points.
Food & drink. Portland 68, Zadar 45: Portland leads by 23 points.
Culture & sights. Portland 38, Zadar 55: Zadar leads by 17 points.
Nightlife. Portland 52, Zadar 38: Portland leads by 14 points.
Nature & outdoors. Portland 84, Zadar 82: Portland leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Portland 58, Zadar 70: Zadar leads by 12 points.
Good for families. Portland and Zadar are level on 55.
Getting around. Portland 62, Zadar 58: Portland leads by 4 points.
Shopping & style. Portland 52, Zadar 27: Portland leads by 25 points.
Affordability. Portland 38, Zadar 52: Zadar leads by 14 points.
Live music & performing arts. Portland 55, Zadar 28: Portland leads by 27 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Portland 42, Zadar 35: Portland leads by 7 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Portland 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

Portland
52match

Wins on live music and the arts and shopping with your weighting.

Zadar
51match

Wins on beaches 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.

Portland in July

27 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
13 mmrain in the month
No seasea
15 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

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
PortlandZadar

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. Portland: 1991-2020 normals, Portland International Airport (9.8 km from centre). Zadar: 1999-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Zadar / Zemunik (9.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePortlandZadar
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
Elevation152 m5 m
Main airportPortland International Airport (PDX)10 km from centre88 non-stop destinationsZadar Airport (ZAD)10 km from centre66 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasurePortlandZadar
City population652,50370,779
People per km²1,736-
Museums within 10 km171
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
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 Portland 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. 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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.