VacationSelector
The beach and the oceanfront hotels from the fishing pier, Virginia Beach
Virginia BeachThe beach and the oceanfront hotels from the fishing pier
People's Square (Narodni trg), Zadar
ZadarPeople's Square (Narodni trg)

Photos: Virginia Beach by SchuminWeb, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Zadar by Böhringer Friedrich, CC BY-SA 2.5, cropped.

Virginia Beach 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 Virginia Beach for

  • families
  • live music and the arts
  • beaches

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

Choose Zadar for

  • getting around
  • nature and the outdoors
  • culture and sights

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. Virginia Beach 77, Zadar 72: Virginia Beach leads by 5 points.
Food & drink. Virginia Beach 42, Zadar 45: Zadar leads by 3 points.
Culture & sights. Virginia Beach 30, Zadar 55: Zadar leads by 25 points.
Nightlife. Virginia Beach 37, Zadar 38: Zadar leads by 1 points.
Nature & outdoors. Virginia Beach 56, Zadar 82: Zadar leads by 26 points.
Day trips. Virginia Beach 64, Zadar 70: Zadar leads by 6 points.
Good for families. Virginia Beach 75, Zadar 55: Virginia Beach leads by 20 points.
Getting around. Virginia Beach 27, Zadar 58: Zadar leads by 31 points.
Shopping & style. Virginia Beach 32, Zadar 27: Virginia Beach leads by 5 points.
Affordability. Virginia Beach 40, Zadar 52: Zadar leads by 12 points.
Live music & performing arts. Virginia Beach 38, Zadar 28: Virginia Beach leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Virginia Beach 32, Zadar 35: Zadar leads by 3 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Virginia Beach and Zadar.

Your match

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

Virginia Beach
46match

Wins on families and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Zadar
Best match
51match

Wins on getting around 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.

Virginia Beach in July

31 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
152 mmrain in the month
25 °Csea
14 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
Virginia BeachZadar

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. Virginia Beach: 1991-2020 normals, Virginia Beach / Gatewood Park (5.7 km from centre). Zadar: 1999-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Zadar / Zemunik (9.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureVirginia BeachZadar
Official language-Croatian
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation7 m5 m
Main airportNorfolk International Airport (ORF)20 km from centre42 non-stop destinationsZadar Airport (ZAD)10 km from centre66 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureVirginia BeachZadar
City population459,47070,779
Museums within 10 km21
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
Swim season, months above 21 °C4 months4 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Virginia Beach 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.