VacationSelector
The House of the Blackheads at dusk, Riga
RigaThe House of the Blackheads at dusk
People's Square (Narodni trg), Zadar
ZadarPeople's Square (Narodni trg)

Photos: Riga by Diliff, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Zadar by Böhringer Friedrich, CC BY-SA 2.5, cropped.

Riga 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 Riga for

  • live music and the arts
  • shopping
  • wellness

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

Choose Zadar for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • day trips

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. Riga 40, Zadar 72: Zadar leads by 32 points.
Food & drink. Riga 52, Zadar 45: Riga leads by 7 points.
Culture & sights. Riga 66, Zadar 55: Riga leads by 11 points.
Nightlife. Riga 52, Zadar 38: Riga leads by 14 points.
Nature & outdoors. Riga 55, Zadar 82: Zadar leads by 27 points.
Day trips. Riga 60, Zadar 70: Zadar leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Riga 50, Zadar 55: Zadar leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Riga 68, Zadar 58: Riga leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Riga 45, Zadar 27: Riga leads by 18 points.
Affordability. Riga 62, Zadar 52: Riga leads by 10 points.
Live music & performing arts. Riga 65, Zadar 28: Riga leads by 37 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Riga 50, Zadar 35: Riga leads by 15 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Riga
Best match
55match

Wins on live music and the arts and shopping 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.

Riga in July

24 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
87 mmrain in the month
18 °Csea
17 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

-10°0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
RigaZadar

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. Riga: 1991-2020 normals, Riga (4.1 km from centre). Zadar: 1999-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Zadar / Zemunik (9.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureRigaZadar
Official languageLatvianCroatian
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+2, UTC+3 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation6 m5 m
Main airportRiga International Airport (RIX)9 km from centre93 non-stop destinationsZadar Airport (ZAD)10 km from centre66 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-14 days

By the numbers

MeasureRigaZadar
City population588,91170,779
Museums within 10 km121
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km12
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 Riga 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. 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. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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.