Rovinj 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 places to eat with your weighting.
Wins on nature & day trips and sights concentration 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 Rovinj if you want a small coastal town, plenty of beaches within reach and quiet evenings, and if midsummer highs of 29°C suit you better than 31°C.
Choose Zadar if you want most of what you came for within walking distance of the centre, more museums, far more protected land around the town for day trips, and drier weather in July and August.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Rovinj and Zadar are level on 73.
| Rovinj | Zadar | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 73 | 73 |
| Swim season months | 4 | 4 |
| Beaches 10 km | 55 | 49 |
| Coast distance | 1 km | 0 km |
| Water distance | 1 km | 0 km |
Places to eat. Rovinj leads by 2 points.2
| Rovinj | Zadar | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 27 | 25 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 130 | 143 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 14 | 11 |
Museums & heritage. Zadar leads by 5 points.5
| Rovinj | Zadar | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 28 | 33 |
| Museums within 10 km | 5 | 8 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 4 | 8 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 80 | 100 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 1 | 2 |
Nightlife. Zadar leads by 16 points.16
| Rovinj | Zadar | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 9 | 25 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 75 | 194 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 66 | 139 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 88 | 72 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 5 | 4 |
Nature & day trips. Zadar leads by 45 points.45
| Rovinj | Zadar | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 10 | 55 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 2 | 12 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 0 | 0 |
| Land share of disc % | 38 | 47 |
| Park area within 2 km | 8 hectares | 30 hectares |
Good for families. Zadar leads by 12 points.12
| Rovinj | Zadar | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 19 | 31 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 6 | 9 |
| Park area within 2 km | 8 hectares | 30 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 3 | 1 |
Sights concentration. Zadar leads by 31 points.31
| Rovinj | Zadar | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 0 | 31 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 2 | 23 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Rovinj and Zadar are level on 80.
| Rovinj | Zadar | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 80 | 80 |
| Price level global | 48.5 | 48.5 |
| Daily budget | €138 | €138 |
Year-round weather. Zadar leads by 4 points.4
| Rovinj | Zadar | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 65 | 69 |
| Monthly daytime high | 8.8 °C to 29.1 °C | 10.4 °C to 31 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 51 mm to 125 mm | 25 mm to 117 mm |
| Dry months | 0 | 2 |
Where they differ
Rovinj's advantages are narrow. It has somewhat more nightclubs than Zadar, 3 theme parks within reach against Zadar's 1, and a somewhat wider range of kitchens among a similar number of restaurants near the centre.
Zadar has many times as many notable places within walking distance of its centre, so a day on foot goes further. 12% of the land around it is protected against 2% around Rovinj, with about three times as much park space near the centre, and about three times as many places to drink.
Where they are alike
Both are swimming towns first. The sea meets Zadar's centre and sits 1km from Rovinj's, and each has a comparable stretch of beaches nearby, 55 and 49. Both give you four months with the sea at 21°C or more.
Eating out and heritage are on a similar footing: a comparable number of restaurants near each centre, with Rovinj's kitchens a little more varied, and a modest museum offering in both, alongside UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach of each.
Which traveller are you?
Swimmers: either works. Rovinj has slightly more beaches to choose from; in Zadar the sea is at the edge of the centre rather than 1km out. Both have the same length of warm-sea season.
Anyone travelling on foot should pick Zadar: many times as many notable places within walking distance of the centre, a larger museum offering, and two UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach against Rovinj's one.
Families are split. Zadar has more tourist attractions near the centre and far more park space, plus more protected land around it for day trips; Rovinj counters with 3 theme parks against Zadar's 1.
What the numbers don't tell you
The value figure is a national price level, identical for both by construction, so the comparison between them carries no information at all. The €138 daily budget beside it is one estimate for the country rather than a measurement of either town, and it will not tell you which is dearer in August, when Rovinj's 13,000 residents are joined by a summer crowd.
No weather station near Zadar records sunshine hours, so that figure is missing rather than low; its monthly ratings rest on temperature, rainfall and sea temperature alone, and sunshine cannot be compared between the two.
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. Rovinj: 1991-2020 normals, Trieste (63.7 km from centre). Zadar: 1999-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Zadar / Zemunik (9.9 km from centre).
Rovinj is at its strongest from June to August, with highs of 27-29°C and the sea reaching 26°C in August. Rain sits at 61-78mm through those months, but the autumn is heavy, 113-125mm a month from September to November, so late trips are a gamble.
Zadar's season is longer. May, June and September all deliver, with highs of 23-28°C and the sea at 18-23°C. July and August are hotter at 31°C and by far the driest, 25-32mm, and September brings 82mm against Rovinj's 114mm.
Getting there
| Flying from | Rovinj | Zadar |
|---|---|---|
| AmsterdamAMS | 1 h 45 m €190-215 1 stop VCE · 111 km | 2 h 10 m €186-201 1 stop SPU · 107 km |
| RomeFCO, CIA | 1 h 10 m no fares TRS · 84 km | 1 h 5 m €294 SPU · 107 km |
| MadridMAD | 2 h 20 m €102-159 VCE · 111 km | 2 h 40 m no fares SPU · 107 km |
| ViennaVIE | 1 h 10 m €65-121 VCE · 111 km | 1 h 10 m €45-192 ZAD · 10 km |
| MunichMUC | 1 h 5 m €268-289 VCE · 111 km | 1 h 25 m no fares SPU · 107 km |
| ZurichZRH | 1 h 5 m no fares VCE · 111 km | 1 h 35 m €247-298 1 stop SPU · 107 km |
| ManchesterMAN | 2 h 15 m €79-96 VCE · 111 km | 2 h 45 m no fares SPU · 107 km |
| BucharestOTP, BBU | 1 h 55 m €50-66 TSF · 129 km | 1 h 40 m no fares ZAD · 10 km |
| ParisCDG, ORY, BVA | 1 h 45 m no fares TRS · 84 km | 2 h 5 m €169-225 SPU · 107 km |
| New YorkJFK, EWR, LGA | 8 h 30 m €637-650 VCE · 111 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 2026-09 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 | Rovinj | Zadar |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | Croatian | Croatian |
| Currency | Euro (EUR) | Euro (EUR) |
| Sockets | CF230 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 | 0 m | 5 m |
| Main airport | Pula Airport (PUY)31 km from centre34 non-stop destinations | Zadar Airport (ZAD)10 km from centre67 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 14 days | 14 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Rovinj | Zadar |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 12,968 | 70,779 |
| Museums within 10 km | 1 | 1 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 1 | 2 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 22 | 17 |
| Swim season, months above 21 °C | 4 months | 4 months |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Rovinj or Zadar somewhere new.