VacationSelector
The City of Arts and Sciences, Valencia
ValenciaThe City of Arts and Sciences
People's Square (Narodni trg), Zadar
ZadarPeople's Square (Narodni trg)

Photos: Valencia by Francesco Ungaro, Pexels License; Zadar by Böhringer Friedrich, CC BY-SA 2.5, cropped.

Valencia 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 Valencia for

  • shopping
  • food and drink
  • nightlife

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

Choose Zadar for

  • nature and the outdoors

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. Valencia 78, Zadar 72: Valencia leads by 6 points.
Food & drink. Valencia 74, Zadar 45: Valencia leads by 29 points.
Culture & sights. Valencia 68, Zadar 55: Valencia leads by 13 points.
Nightlife. Valencia 66, Zadar 38: Valencia leads by 28 points.
Nature & outdoors. Valencia 60, Zadar 82: Zadar leads by 22 points.
Day trips. Valencia and Zadar are level on 70.
Good for families. Valencia 75, Zadar 55: Valencia leads by 20 points.
Getting around. Valencia 76, Zadar 58: Valencia leads by 18 points.
Shopping & style. Valencia 57, Zadar 27: Valencia leads by 30 points.
Affordability. Valencia 57, Zadar 52: Valencia leads by 5 points.
Live music & performing arts. Valencia 55, Zadar 28: Valencia leads by 27 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Valencia 42, Zadar 35: Valencia leads by 7 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Valencia
Best match
65match

Wins on shopping and food and drink with your weighting.

Zadar
51match

Wins on 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.

Valencia in July

30 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
7 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
25 °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
ValenciaZadar

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. Valencia: 1991-2020 normals, Valencia (1.6 km from centre). Zadar: 1999-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Zadar / Zemunik (9.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureValenciaZadar
Official languageSpanishCroatian
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation15 m5 m
Main airportValencia Airport (VLC)9 km from centre109 non-stop destinationsZadar Airport (ZAD)10 km from centre66 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureValenciaZadar
City population840,79270,779
People per km²6,242-
Museums within 10 km451
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km22
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 Valencia 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.