VacationSelector
The adobe New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe
Santa FeThe adobe New Mexico Museum of Art
People's Square (Narodni trg), Zadar
ZadarPeople's Square (Narodni trg)

Photos: Santa Fe by dconvertini, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Zadar by Böhringer Friedrich, CC BY-SA 2.5, cropped.

Santa Fe 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 Fe for

  • shopping
  • live music and the arts
  • wellness

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

Choose Zadar for

  • beaches
  • prices
  • getting around

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 Fe 5, Zadar 72: Zadar leads by 67 points.
Food & drink. Santa Fe 62, Zadar 45: Santa Fe leads by 17 points.
Culture & sights. Santa Fe 66, Zadar 55: Santa Fe leads by 11 points.
Nightlife. Santa Fe 22, Zadar 38: Zadar leads by 16 points.
Nature & outdoors. Santa Fe 80, Zadar 82: Zadar leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Santa Fe and Zadar are level on 70.
Good for families. Santa Fe 45, Zadar 55: Zadar leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Santa Fe 40, Zadar 58: Zadar leads by 18 points.
Shopping & style. Santa Fe 62, Zadar 27: Santa Fe leads by 35 points.
Affordability. Santa Fe 30, Zadar 52: Zadar leads by 22 points.
Live music & performing arts. Santa Fe 55, Zadar 28: Santa Fe leads by 27 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Santa Fe 55, Zadar 35: Santa Fe leads by 20 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Santa Fe
49match

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

Zadar
51match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Santa Fe in July

31 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
60 mmrain in the month
No seasea
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 FeZadar

Where the figures come from

Santa Fe's station stands 199 m below the city centre, so the centre is likely a little cooler than the figures say.

Santa Fe 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.

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 Fe: 1991-2020 normals, Santa Fe / Cieneguilla (12.4 km from centre). Zadar: 1999-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Zadar / Zemunik (9.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSanta FeZadar
Official language-Croatian
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-7, UTC-6 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation2,134 m5 m
Main airportSanta Fe Municipal Airport (SAF)12 km from centre5 non-stop destinationsZadar Airport (ZAD)10 km from centre66 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureSanta FeZadar
City population87,50570,779
People per km²645-
Museums within 10 km101
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
Swim season, months above 21 °C-4 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Santa Fe 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. 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.