VacationSelector
The Opera House from the water, Sydney
SydneyThe Opera House from the water
People's Square (Narodni trg), Zadar
ZadarPeople's Square (Narodni trg)

Photos: Sydney by Bernard Spragg, CC0; Zadar by Böhringer Friedrich, CC BY-SA 2.5, cropped.

Sydney 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 Sydney for

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

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

Choose Zadar for

  • 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. Sydney 95, Zadar 72: Sydney leads by 23 points.
Food & drink. Sydney 77, Zadar 45: Sydney leads by 32 points.
Culture & sights. Sydney 60, Zadar 55: Sydney leads by 5 points.
Nightlife. Sydney 60, Zadar 38: Sydney leads by 22 points.
Nature & outdoors. Sydney 85, Zadar 82: Sydney leads by 3 points.
Day trips. Sydney 50, Zadar 70: Zadar leads by 20 points.
Good for families. Sydney 75, Zadar 55: Sydney leads by 20 points.
Getting around. Sydney 75, Zadar 58: Sydney leads by 17 points.
Shopping & style. Sydney 68, Zadar 27: Sydney leads by 41 points.
Affordability. Sydney 22, Zadar 52: Zadar leads by 30 points.
Live music & performing arts. Sydney 73, Zadar 28: Sydney leads by 45 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Sydney 55, Zadar 35: Sydney leads by 20 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Sydney
Best match
66match

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.

Sydney in July

18 °Cdaytime high
9 °Cnight-time low
70 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
19 °Csea
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
SydneyZadar

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. Sydney: 1991-2020 normals, Sydney Airport (3.7 km from centre). Zadar: 1999-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Zadar / Zemunik (9.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSydneyZadar
Official languageEnglishCroatian
CurrencyAustralian Dollar (AUD)Euro (EUR)
SocketsI230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+10, UTC+11 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number000112
Elevation6 m5 m
Main airportSydney Kingsford Smith International Airport (SYD)9 km from centre99 non-stop destinationsZadar Airport (ZAD)10 km from centre66 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureSydneyZadar
City population5,450,49670,779
People per km²449-
Museums within 10 km381
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km22
Swim season, months above 21 °C6 months4 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Sydney 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.