Rome or Zadar?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Wins on sights concentration and good for families with your weighting.
Wins on beaches & swimming and value for money with your weighting.
What matters to you?
Pick a travel style or drag the sliders. The match scores above update as you do.
The verdict
Choose Rome if the trip is about sights within walking distance, museums and evenings out, with 7 UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach and plenty to do with children away from the water.
Choose Zadar if swimming comes first: the sea begins at the centre rather than 24km out, with 49 beaches nearby, and a small place to cover on foot.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Zadar leads by 40 points.40
| Rome | Zadar | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 33 | 73 |
| Swim season months | 5 | 4 |
| Beaches 10 km | 3 | 49 |
| Coast distance | 24 km | 0 km |
| Water distance | 24 km | 0 km |
Places to eat. Rome leads by 35 points.35
| Rome | Zadar | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 60 | 25 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 2,241 | 143 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 10 | 11 |
Museums & heritage. Rome leads by 51 points.51
| Rome | Zadar | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 84 | 33 |
| Museums within 10 km | 161 | 8 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 79 | 8 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 49 | 100 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 7 | 2 |
Nightlife. Rome leads by 49 points.49
| Rome | Zadar | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 74 | 25 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 2,022 | 194 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 912 | 139 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 45 | 72 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 85 | 4 |
Nature & day trips. Rome leads by 15 points.15
| Rome | Zadar | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 70 | 55 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 19 | 12 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 0 | 0 |
| Land share of disc % | 78 | 47 |
| Park area within 2 km | 172 hectares | 30 hectares |
Good for families. Rome leads by 55 points.55
| Rome | Zadar | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 86 | 31 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 126 | 9 |
| Park area within 2 km | 172 hectares | 30 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 4 | 1 |
Sights concentration. Rome leads by 68 points.68
| Rome | Zadar | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 99 | 31 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 1,125 | 23 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Zadar leads by 12 points.12
| Rome | Zadar | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 68 | 80 |
| Price level global | 64.9 | 48.5 |
| Daily budget | €155 | €138 |
Year-round weather. Rome leads by 2 points.2
| Rome | Zadar | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 71 | 69 |
| Monthly daytime high | 12 °C to 31.4 °C | 10.4 °C to 31 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 21 mm to 114 mm | 25 mm to 117 mm |
| Dry months | 3 | 2 |
Where they differ
Rome has many times as many notable places within walking distance of the centre, and many times as many museums, with 7 UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach against Zadar's 2. It also has far more attractions and park space near the centre, 4 theme parks within reach against Zadar's 1, and far more bars and clubs.
Zadar puts swimming first: the sea is 0km from its centre against 24km in Rome, with 49 beaches nearby against Rome's 3. Its museums and bars sit tightly around the centre.
Where they are alike
Neither city has much of a weather edge. Highs run 12-31°C in Rome and 10-31°C in Zadar, both are coldest in the same winter month, and both warm the sea to 25°C at the peak of summer.
They also sit close on price and on getting out of town: the national budget estimates behind them are not far apart, and both have protected countryside within reach, 19% of the land around Rome and 12% around Zadar.
Which traveller are you?
A traveller who plans days around museums and old streets should take Rome: many times as many museums, sights packed within walking distance of the centre, and 7 UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach against Zadar's 2.
A family whose holiday is built on swimming should take Zadar, where the sea starts at the centre and 49 beaches sit nearby. Rome suits families who want attractions and parks instead, with 4 theme parks within reach.
Anyone whose evenings matter, eating out and then going on somewhere, will find far more of both in Rome. Zadar has fewer bars and clubs, but most sit near the centre, so nights need no travelling.
What the numbers don't tell you
The daily budget figures, €155 for Italy and €138 for Croatia, are national estimates of restaurant and hotel prices, not measurements of either city. A capital and a small coastal town can each sit far from their country's average, so the gap says little about what either trip costs.
No weather station near Zadar records sunshine hours, so that figure is missing rather than low, and its monthly ratings rest on temperature, rainfall and sea temperature alone. That side of the weather comparison is unmeasured. The monthly picture sees weather only, not how busy a month is.
When should you go?
The figures behind each month. Each row is shaded against that destination's own year, so the deepest cell is its best month for that measure and the palest its weakest. Shades are not comparable between the two rows.
Temperature and rainfall are thirty-year climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Rome: 1991-2020 normals, Roma / Ciampino (15.1 km from centre). Zadar: 1999-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Zadar / Zemunik (9.9 km from centre).
Rome peaks in May and June, 24°C rising to 28°C, with June rain falling to 33mm and midsummer drier still, if hot. The autumn is the wet end of its year, 97mm in October and more after that.
Zadar is the earlier starter: April is already 19°C and drier than Rome in that month, and it holds its ground into September, when a sea of 23°C outlasts 82mm of rain. Both are cold and wet by winter.
Getting there
| Flying from | Rome | Zadar |
|---|---|---|
| ParisCDG, ORY, BVA | 2 h 0 m €91-122 FCO · 23 km | 2 h 5 m €169-225 SPU · 107 km |
| AmsterdamAMS | 2 h 10 m €176-218 FCO · 23 km | 2 h 10 m €186-201 1 stop SPU · 107 km |
| LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2 | 2 h 20 m €76-143 1 stop FCO · 23 km | 2 h 20 m no fares ZAD · 10 km |
| MilanMXP, BGY, LIN | 1 h 15 m €84-118 FCO · 23 km | 1 h 20 m no fares ZAD · 10 km |
| MunichMUC | 1 h 30 m €145-191 FCO · 23 km | 1 h 25 m no fares SPU · 107 km |
| MadridMAD | 2 h 15 m €98-119 FCO · 23 km | 2 h 40 m no fares SPU · 107 km |
| ViennaVIE | 1 h 35 m €66-127 FCO · 23 km | 1 h 10 m €45-192 ZAD · 10 km |
| BarcelonaBCN | 1 h 40 m €44-74 FCO · 23 km | 2 h 5 m €108-177 SPU · 107 km |
| DublinDUB | 2 h 55 m €118-198 1 stop FCO · 23 km | 3 h 0 m no fares SPU · 107 km |
| New YorkJFK, EWR, LGA | 8 h 45 m €446-597 FCO · 23 km | 9 h 0 m no fares SPU · 107 km |
The busiest departure cities for these two, with a place kept for each other part of the world. Busiest means arriving passengers where an official count exists, and where none does, the number of non-stop services flown: official route statistics are published by the European reporting countries and by nobody else, so a table ranked on them alone would offer a reader in New York or Tokyo ten European cities. Flying times are estimated from the distance between airports, and every row is a city flown non-stop to both. Where the typical offer connects anyway, the stops are shown. Under each figure is the airport the flight lands at and how far that is from the centre, because the nearest airport is not always the one a route is flown to. Where both columns name the same airport it is one flight, and the difference between the two is the distance printed beside it. Typical return fares for 2026-08 to 2026-10, cached market data up to 7 days old. The figure is the middle half of the offers found, so a single price means they agreed and a range means they did not; for a typical route that middle half spans about a quarter of the median, and for the least settled routes rather more than the median itself.
Before you go
| Measure | Rome | Zadar |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | Italian | Croatian |
| Currency | Euro (EUR) | Euro (EUR) |
| Sockets | CFL230 V, 50 Hz | CF230 V, 50 Hz |
| Driving side | Right | Right |
| Time zone | UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer | UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer |
| Emergency number | 112 | 112 |
| Elevation | 21 m | 5 m |
| Main airport | Rome–Fiumicino Leonardo da Vinci International Airport (FCO)23 km from centre230 non-stop destinations | Zadar Airport (ZAD)10 km from centre67 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 13 days | 14 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Rome | Zadar |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 2,748,109 | 70,779 |
| People per km² | 2,135 | – |
| Museums within 10 km | 177 | 1 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 7 | 2 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 65 | 17 |
| Swim season, months above 21 °C | 5 months | 4 months |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Rome or Zadar somewhere new.