VacationSelector
The County Courthouse and its garden, Santa Barbara
Santa BarbaraThe County Courthouse and its garden
People's Square (Narodni trg), Zadar
ZadarPeople's Square (Narodni trg)

Photos: Santa Barbara by Warren LeMay, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Zadar by Böhringer Friedrich, CC BY-SA 2.5, cropped.

Santa Barbara 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 Santa Barbara for

  • live music and the arts
  • shopping
  • food and drink

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

Choose Zadar for

  • prices
  • day trips
  • beaches

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. Santa Barbara 60, Zadar 72: Zadar leads by 12 points.
Food & drink. Santa Barbara 62, Zadar 45: Santa Barbara leads by 17 points.
Culture & sights. Santa Barbara 48, Zadar 55: Zadar leads by 7 points.
Nightlife. Santa Barbara 34, Zadar 38: Zadar leads by 4 points.
Nature & outdoors. Santa Barbara 80, Zadar 82: Zadar leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Santa Barbara 55, Zadar 70: Zadar leads by 15 points.
Good for families. Santa Barbara 64, Zadar 55: Santa Barbara leads by 9 points.
Getting around. Santa Barbara 46, Zadar 58: Zadar leads by 12 points.
Shopping & style. Santa Barbara 45, Zadar 27: Santa Barbara leads by 18 points.
Affordability. Santa Barbara 15, Zadar 52: Zadar leads by 37 points.
Live music & performing arts. Santa Barbara 50, Zadar 28: Santa Barbara leads by 22 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Santa Barbara 50, Zadar 35: Santa Barbara leads by 15 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Too close to call, level with your weighting

Santa Barbara
51match

Wins on live music and the arts and shopping with your weighting.

Zadar
51match

Wins on prices and day trips with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Santa Barbara in July

24 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
18 °Csea
14 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

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
Santa BarbaraZadar

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. Santa Barbara: 1991-2020 normals, Santa Barbara / La Patera (11.7 km from centre). Zadar: 1999-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Zadar / Zemunik (9.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSanta BarbaraZadar
Official language-Croatian
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-8, UTC-7 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation15 m5 m
Main airportSanta Barbara Municipal Airport (SBA)12 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsZadar Airport (ZAD)10 km from centre66 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureSanta BarbaraZadar
City population88,66570,779
People per km²816-
Museums within 10 km101
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
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 Santa Barbara 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). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm.

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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.