VacationSelector

Vienna or Zagreb?

Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.

Your match

Vienna
✓ Best match
59
match

Wins on good for families and museums & heritage with your weighting.

Zagreb
47
match

Wins on value for money and nature & day trips with your weighting.

What matters to you?

Pick a travel style or drag the sliders. The match scores above update as you do.

The verdict

Choose Vienna if the trip is built around museums, eating out and keeping children occupied: it has far more of all three, plus 4 theme parks and 3 UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach.

Choose Zagreb if you want warmer summer days, a centre whose museums sit tightly together, and more protected countryside within reach, at Croatia's lower national price level.

Scoreboard

Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.

ViennaZagreb
Beaches & swimming. Vienna and Zagreb are level on 0.
ViennaZagreb
Score00
Swim season months00
Beaches 10 km228
Coast distance10,000 km117 km
Water distance——
Places to eat. Vienna leads by 25 points.25
ViennaZagreb
Score7752
Restaurants within 2 km of centre1,617374
Effective number of cuisines within 2 km3727
Museums & heritage. Vienna leads by 36 points.36
ViennaZagreb
Score8145
Museums within 10 km19241
Museums within 2 km of centre11040
Share of museums within 2 km %5798
Unesco sites within 50 km30
Nightlife. Vienna leads by 13 points.13
ViennaZagreb
Score7461
Drinking venues within 4 km1,9481,009
Drinking venues within 2 km of centre1,089571
Share of drinking venues within 2 km %5657
Nightclubs within 4 km10863
Nature & day trips. Zagreb leads by 2 points.2
ViennaZagreb
Score3234
Protected land share 50 km %49
Landscape blanket share 50 km %00
Land share of disc %100100
Park area within 2 km93 hectares52 hectares
Good for families. Vienna leads by 41 points.41
ViennaZagreb
Score6928
Tourist attractions within 2 km467
Park area within 2 km93 hectares52 hectares
Theme parks within 30 km40
Sights concentration. Vienna leads by 15 points.15
ViennaZagreb
Score7560
Notable places within 2 km287122
Min wikipedia languages55
Value for money. Zagreb leads by 21 points.21
ViennaZagreb
Score5980
Price level global76.948.5
Daily budget€160€138
Year-round weather. Zagreb leads by 1 points.1
ViennaZagreb
Score6162
Monthly daytime high3.3 °C to 26.8 °C5.4 °C to 28.5 °C
Monthly rainfall38 mm to 80 mm47 mm to 104 mm
Dry months10
0255075100

Where they differ

Vienna is the stronger city for museums and for eating out, with many times as many of each near the centre and a wider range of kitchens. It also suits children better: many times as many attractions, about twice as much park space, 4 theme parks and 3 UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach.

Zagreb has more protected countryside around it, 9% of the land against 4%, and its museums sit tightly around the centre rather than spread out. Croatia's national daily estimate is €138 against Austria's €160.

Where they are alike

Neither is a swimming destination. Vienna has 22 beaches nearby and Zagreb 8, but neither has a month with sea at 21°C or more, and swimming counts for nothing in either trip.

Their year-round weather is close: Zagreb runs slightly warmer at 5-29°C against Vienna's 3-27°C, with similar annual sunshine, and both share cold winters and warm summers. Day-trip country is limited either way, with only a small share of protected land around both.

Which traveller are you?

The museum-minded traveller should take Vienna: many times as many museums as Zagreb, 3 UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach where Zagreb has none, and about twice as many notable places within walking distance of the centre.

A family with children is better served in Vienna too, with many times as many attractions near the centre, about twice as much park space and 4 theme parks within reach, where Zagreb has none.

For nights out combined with open country, Zagreb holds its own: fewer bars and clubs than Vienna but about half of them close to the centre, 9% of the surrounding land protected, and Croatia's lower national price level.

What the numbers don't tell you

The daily estimate of €160 for Austria and €138 for Croatia is a national price level for restaurants and hotels, not a measurement of Vienna or Zagreb. A capital can sit well away from its own country's average, by more than the gap between these two figures, so they cannot tell you which city will cost you more on the ground.

The beach counts mislead too: Vienna has 22 nearby, but neither has a month of sea at 21°C or more, and swimming is not a reason to pick either. The warmest months are also among the wettest in both, so summer highs arrive with rain.

When should you go?

The figures behind each month. Each row is shaded against that destination's own year, so the deepest cell is its best month for that measure and the palest its weakest. Shades are not comparable between the two rows.

J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D
Daytime high, °C
Vienna
3
6
11
17
21
25
27
27
21
15
9
4
Zagreb
5
8
13
18
23
27
29
28
22
17
11
6
Rainfall, mm
Vienna
42
38
52
42
80
70
78
71
64
47
46
46
Zagreb
47
48
49
63
76
90
87
85
104
91
88
63
Daylight, hours per day
Vienna
9
10
12
14
15
16
16
14
13
11
9
8
Zagreb
9
10
12
14
15
16
15
14
13
11
10
9
Sunshine, hours per day
Vienna
2
4
5
7
8
8
9
9
6
4
2
2
Zagreb
2
4
5
6
8
9
9
9
6
4
2
2

Temperature and rainfall are thirty-year climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Vienna: 1991-2020 normals, Wien / Hohe Warte (4.7 km from centre). Zagreb: 1991-2020 normals, Zagreb / Gric (0.6 km from centre).

WorseBetter

Vienna is the better bet in autumn: September and October hold 21°C and 15°C with 64mm and 47mm of rain, where Zagreb sees 104mm and 91mm and its walking weather turns unreliable.

Zagreb is warmer through late spring and summer, 23°C in May and 29°C in July against Vienna's 21°C and 27°C, though June to August is wetter, near 85-90mm a month. For both, June to August is the peak, and December to February is the weakest stretch.

Getting there

Flying fromViennaZagreb
LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2
2 h 10 m
€105-189
1 stop
VIE · 18 km
2 h 15 m
no fares
ZAG · 11 km
FrankfurtFRA, HHN
1 h 25 m
€143-152
VIE · 18 km
1 h 30 m
no fares
ZAG · 11 km
IstanbulIST, SAW
2 h 5 m
€121-285
VIE · 18 km
2 h 0 m
€153-254
ZAG · 11 km
AmsterdamAMS
1 h 50 m
€180-245
1 stop
VIE · 18 km
2 h 0 m
no fares
ZAG · 11 km
ParisCDG, ORY, BVA
1 h 55 m
€112-162
VIE · 18 km
1 h 55 m
no fares
ZAG · 11 km
MunichMUC
1 h 5 m
€230-294
1 stop
VIE · 18 km
1 h 10 m
no fares
ZAG · 11 km
BrusselsBRU, CRL
1 h 45 m
€63-153
1 stop
VIE · 18 km
1 h 55 m
no fares
ZAG · 11 km
DubrovnikDBV
1 h 25 m
no fares
VIE · 18 km
1 h 10 m
no fares
ZAG · 11 km
DubaiDXB, DWC
5 h 40 m
€292-307
VIE · 18 km
5 h 35 m
no fares
ZAG · 11 km
TorontoYYZ, YHM, YTZ
8 h 50 m
no fares
VIE · 18 km
9 h 0 m
no fares
ZAG · 11 km

The busiest departure cities for these two, with a place kept for each other part of the world. Busiest means arriving passengers where an official count exists, and where none does, the number of non-stop services flown: official route statistics are published by the European reporting countries and by nobody else, so a table ranked on them alone would offer a reader in New York or Tokyo ten European cities. Flying times are estimated from the distance between airports, and every row is a city flown non-stop to both. Where the typical offer connects anyway, the stops are shown. Under each figure is the airport the flight lands at and how far that is from the centre, because the nearest airport is not always the one a route is flown to. Where both columns name the same airport it is one flight, and the difference between the two is the distance printed beside it. Typical return fares for 2026-08 to 2026-10, cached market data up to 7 days old. The figure is the middle half of the offers found, so a single price means they agreed and a range means they did not; for a typical route that middle half spans about a quarter of the median, and for the least settled routes rather more than the median itself.

Before you go

MeasureViennaZagreb
Official languageGerman, Austrian Sign LanguageCroatian
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
Elevation151 m127 m
Main airportVienna International Airport (VIE)18 km from centre204 non-stop destinationsZagreb Franjo Tuđman International Airport (ZAG)11 km from centre60 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureViennaZagreb
City population2,028,289767,131
People per km²4,890–
Museums within 10 km15227
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km30
Distinct cuisines in the centre11342

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Vienna or Zagreb somewhere new.

Browse every destination we have measured

Sources

© OpenStreetMap contributors, data available under the Open Database Licence. Place counts include data from Overture Maps Foundation (CDLA Permissive 2.0), assembled from Meta, Microsoft, Foursquare and other providers. Notable-place counts from Wikidata (CC0), weighted by Wikipedia language editions. Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. 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. Typical fares from Travelpayouts (Aviasales data). Route-level air passenger statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates.

Scores follow rubric v2; snapshot generated 2026-08-31. Typical prices can be up to 7 days old. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.