VacationSelector
The terrace on Cerro Santa Lucía, Santiago
SantiagoThe terrace on Cerro Santa Lucía
People's Square (Narodni trg), Zadar
ZadarPeople's Square (Narodni trg)

Photos: Santiago by Rjcastillo, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Zadar by Böhringer Friedrich, CC BY-SA 2.5, cropped.

Santiago 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 Santiago for

  • live music and the arts
  • shopping
  • nightlife

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

Choose Zadar for

  • beaches
  • culture and sights

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. Santiago 12, Zadar 72: Zadar leads by 60 points.
Food & drink. Santiago 60, Zadar 45: Santiago leads by 15 points.
Culture & sights. Santiago 52, Zadar 55: Zadar leads by 3 points.
Nightlife. Santiago 60, Zadar 38: Santiago leads by 22 points.
Nature & outdoors. Santiago 83, Zadar 82: Santiago leads by 1 points.
Day trips. Santiago and Zadar are level on 70.
Good for families. Santiago 57, Zadar 55: Santiago leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Santiago 68, Zadar 58: Santiago leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Santiago 52, Zadar 27: Santiago leads by 25 points.
Affordability. Santiago 58, Zadar 52: Santiago leads by 6 points.
Live music & performing arts. Santiago 55, Zadar 28: Santiago leads by 27 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Santiago 37, Zadar 35: Santiago leads by 2 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Santiago
Best match
55match

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

Zadar
51match

Wins on beaches and culture and sights with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Santiago in July

14 °Cdaytime high
4 °Cnight-time low
52 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
No seasea
10 hdaylight a day

Zadar in July

31 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
29 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
24 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
SantiagoZadar

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. Santiago: 1991-2020 normals, Santiago Q. Normal (3.1 km from centre). Zadar: 1999-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Zadar / Zemunik (9.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSantiagoZadar
Official languageSpanishCroatian
CurrencyChilean Peso (CLP)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCL220 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-4, UTC-3 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 133/134, ambulance 131, fire 132112
Elevation575 m5 m
Main airportComodoro Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport (SCL)14 km from centre67 non-stop destinationsZadar Airport (ZAD)10 km from centre66 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureSantiagoZadar
City population6,257,51670,779
People per km²7,468-
Museums within 10 km541
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 Santiago 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). 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. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates.

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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.