VacationSelector
The Space Needle behind Pier 70, Seattle
SeattleThe Space Needle behind Pier 70
People's Square (Narodni trg), Zadar
ZadarPeople's Square (Narodni trg)

Photos: Seattle by Caio, Pexels License; Zadar by Böhringer Friedrich, CC BY-SA 2.5, cropped.

Seattle 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 Seattle for

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

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

Choose Zadar for

  • beaches
  • prices
  • day trips

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. Seattle 30, Zadar 72: Zadar leads by 42 points.
Food & drink. Seattle 66, Zadar 45: Seattle leads by 21 points.
Culture & sights. Seattle 50, Zadar 55: Zadar leads by 5 points.
Nightlife. Seattle 55, Zadar 38: Seattle leads by 17 points.
Nature & outdoors. Seattle 87, Zadar 82: Seattle leads by 5 points.
Day trips. Seattle 55, Zadar 70: Zadar leads by 15 points.
Good for families. Seattle 64, Zadar 55: Seattle leads by 9 points.
Getting around. Seattle 60, Zadar 58: Seattle leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Seattle 52, Zadar 27: Seattle leads by 25 points.
Affordability. Seattle 22, Zadar 52: Zadar leads by 30 points.
Live music & performing arts. Seattle 70, Zadar 28: Seattle leads by 42 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Seattle 40, Zadar 35: Seattle leads by 5 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Seattle and Zadar.

Your match

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

Seattle
Best match
54match

Wins on live music and the arts and shopping 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.

Seattle in July

25 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
15 mmrain in the month
12 °Csea
16 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

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
SeattleZadar

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. Seattle: 1991-2020 normals, Seattle-Tacoma Airport (17.3 km from centre). Zadar: 1999-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Zadar / Zemunik (9.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSeattleZadar
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
Elevation40 m5 m
Main airportSeattle–Tacoma International Airport (SEA)18 km from centre135 non-stop destinationsZadar Airport (ZAD)10 km from centre66 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureSeattleZadar
City population737,01570,779
People per km²1,996-
Museums within 10 km271
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 Seattle 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.