VacationSelector
Rabelo boats on the Douro and the Ribeira, Porto
PortoRabelo boats on the Douro and the Ribeira
People's Square (Narodni trg), Zadar
ZadarPeople's Square (Narodni trg)

Photos: Porto by Jakub Hałun, CC BY 4.0, cropped; Zadar by Böhringer Friedrich, CC BY-SA 2.5, cropped.

Porto 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 Porto for

  • nightlife
  • food and drink
  • shopping

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

Choose Zadar for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • families

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. Porto 40, Zadar 72: Zadar leads by 32 points.
Food & drink. Porto 70, Zadar 45: Porto leads by 25 points.
Culture & sights. Porto 68, Zadar 55: Porto leads by 13 points.
Nightlife. Porto 65, Zadar 38: Porto leads by 27 points.
Nature & outdoors. Porto 64, Zadar 82: Zadar leads by 18 points.
Day trips. Porto 79, Zadar 70: Porto leads by 9 points.
Good for families. Porto 52, Zadar 55: Zadar leads by 3 points.
Getting around. Porto 66, Zadar 58: Porto leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. Porto 52, Zadar 27: Porto leads by 25 points.
Affordability. Porto 62, Zadar 52: Porto leads by 10 points.
Live music & performing arts. Porto 52, Zadar 28: Porto leads by 24 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Porto 34, Zadar 35: Zadar leads by 1 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Porto and Zadar.

Your match

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

Porto
Best match
59match

Wins on nightlife and food and drink with your weighting.

Zadar
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.

Porto in July

25 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
22 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
17 °Csea
15 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

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
PortoZadar

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. Porto: 1991-2020 normals, Porto / Serra Do Pilar (2.1 km from centre). Zadar: 1999-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Zadar / Zemunik (9.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePortoZadar
Official languagePortugueseCroatian
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation104 m5 m
Main airportFrancisco de Sá Carneiro Airport (OPO)12 km from centre134 non-stop destinationsZadar Airport (ZAD)10 km from centre66 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasurePortoZadar
City population273,47670,779
People per km²6,606-
Museums within 10 km421
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km32
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 Porto 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). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates.

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.