VacationSelector
The White Tower from the promenade, Thessaloniki
ThessalonikiThe White Tower from the promenade
People's Square (Narodni trg), Zadar
ZadarPeople's Square (Narodni trg)

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

Thessaloniki 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 Thessaloniki for

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

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

Choose Zadar for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • families

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. Thessaloniki 55, Zadar 72: Zadar leads by 17 points.
Food & drink. Thessaloniki 77, Zadar 45: Thessaloniki leads by 32 points.
Culture & sights. Thessaloniki 73, Zadar 55: Thessaloniki leads by 18 points.
Nightlife. Thessaloniki 76, Zadar 38: Thessaloniki leads by 38 points.
Nature & outdoors. Thessaloniki 66, Zadar 82: Zadar leads by 16 points.
Day trips. Thessaloniki 74, Zadar 70: Thessaloniki leads by 4 points.
Good for families. Thessaloniki 50, Zadar 55: Zadar leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Thessaloniki 60, Zadar 58: Thessaloniki leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Thessaloniki 50, Zadar 27: Thessaloniki leads by 23 points.
Affordability. Thessaloniki 66, Zadar 52: Thessaloniki leads by 14 points.
Live music & performing arts. Thessaloniki 52, Zadar 28: Thessaloniki leads by 24 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Thessaloniki 33, Zadar 35: Zadar leads by 2 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Thessaloniki
Best match
61match

Wins on nightlife and food and drink with your weighting.

Zadar
51match

Wins on beaches and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Thessaloniki in July

32 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
23 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
26 °Csea
15 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
ThessalonikiZadar

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. Thessaloniki: 1991-2020 normals, Thessaloniki Airport (14 km from centre). Zadar: 1999-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Zadar / Zemunik (9.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureThessalonikiZadar
Official languageGreekCroatian
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+2, UTC+3 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation6 m5 m
Main airportThessaloniki Macedonia International Airport (SKG)14 km from centre90 non-stop destinationsZadar Airport (ZAD)10 km from centre66 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year15 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureThessalonikiZadar
City population309,61770,779
People per km²16,042-
Museums within 10 km321
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km12
Swim season, months above 21 °C5 months4 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Thessaloniki 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). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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. 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.