San Diego or Zagreb?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Wins on beaches & swimming and good for families with your weighting.
Wins on value for money 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.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. San Diego leads by 63 points.63
| San Diego | Zagreb | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 63 | 0 |
| Swim season months | 1 | 0 |
| Beaches 10 km | 42 | 8 |
| Coast distance | 1 km | 117 km |
| Water distance | 1 km | — |
Places to eat. San Diego leads by 11 points.11
| San Diego | Zagreb | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 63 | 52 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 823 | 374 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 27 | 27 |
Museums & heritage. Zagreb leads by 1 points.1
| San Diego | Zagreb | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 44 | 45 |
| Museums within 10 km | 59 | 41 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 30 | 40 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 51 | 98 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 0 | 0 |
Nightlife. Zagreb leads by 11 points.11
| San Diego | Zagreb | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 50 | 61 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 615 | 1,009 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 408 | 571 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 66 | 57 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 31 | 63 |
Nature & day trips. San Diego leads by 21 points.21
| San Diego | Zagreb | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 55 | 34 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 6 | 9 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 0 | 0 |
| Land share of disc % | 52 | 100 |
| Park area within 2 km | 308 hectares | 52 hectares |
Good for families. San Diego leads by 47 points.47
| San Diego | Zagreb | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 75 | 28 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 40 | 7 |
| Park area within 2 km | 308 hectares | 52 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 3 | 0 |
Sights concentration. Zagreb leads by 20 points.20
| San Diego | Zagreb | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 40 | 60 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 40 | 122 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Zagreb leads by 37 points.37
| San Diego | Zagreb | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 43 | 80 |
| Price level global | 100 | 48.5 |
| Daily budget | — | €138 |
Year-round weather. San Diego leads by 26 points.26
| San Diego | Zagreb | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 88 | 62 |
| Monthly daytime high | 18.6 °C to 25 °C | 5.4 °C to 28.5 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 0 mm to 56 mm | 47 mm to 104 mm |
| Dry months | 9 | 0 |
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. San Diego: 1991-2020 normals, San Diego International Airport (2.8 km from centre). Zagreb: 1991-2020 normals, Zagreb / Gric (0.6 km from centre).
Getting there
| Flying from | San Diego | Zagreb |
|---|---|---|
| LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2 | 11 h 0 m no fares SAN · 3 km | 2 h 15 m no fares ZAG · 11 km |
| AmsterdamAMS | 11 h 15 m no fares SAN · 3 km | 2 h 0 m no fares ZAG · 11 km |
| MunichMUC | 12 h 5 m no fares SAN · 3 km | 1 h 10 m no fares ZAG · 11 km |
| TorontoYYZ, YHM, YTZ | 4 h 45 m no fares SAN · 3 km | 9 h 0 m no fares ZAG · 11 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.
Before you go
| Measure | San Diego | Zagreb |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | – | Croatian |
| Currency | US Dollar (USD) | Euro (EUR) |
| Sockets | AB120 V, 60 Hz | CF230 V, 50 Hz |
| Driving side | Right | Right |
| Time zone | UTC-8, UTC-7 in summer | UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer |
| Emergency number | 911 | 112 |
| Elevation | 129 m | 127 m |
| Main airport | San Diego International Airport (SAN)3 km from centre87 non-stop destinations | Zagreb Franjo Tuđman International Airport (ZAG)11 km from centre60 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 13 days | 14 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | San Diego | Zagreb |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 1,386,932 | 767,131 |
| People per km² | 1,438 | – |
| Museums within 10 km | 26 | 27 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 0 | 0 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 44 | 42 |
| Swim season, months above 21 °C | 1 month | – |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow San Diego or Zagreb somewhere new.