VacationSelector
The Bell Tower of Xi'an under a blue sky, Xi'an
Xi'anThe Bell Tower of Xi'an under a blue sky
People's Square (Narodni trg), Zadar
ZadarPeople's Square (Narodni trg)

Photos: Xi'an by xiquinhosilva, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Zadar by Böhringer Friedrich, CC BY-SA 2.5, cropped.

Xi'an 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 Xi'an for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Xi'an’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. Xi'an 4, Zadar 72: Zadar leads by 68 points.
Food & drink. Xi'an 70, Zadar 45: Xi'an leads by 25 points.
Culture & sights. Xi'an 81, Zadar 55: Xi'an leads by 26 points.
Nightlife. Xi'an 42, Zadar 38: Xi'an leads by 4 points.
Nature & outdoors. Xi'an 62, Zadar 82: Zadar leads by 20 points.
Day trips. Xi'an 80, Zadar 70: Xi'an leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Xi'an 48, Zadar 55: Zadar leads by 7 points.
Getting around. Xi'an 66, Zadar 58: Xi'an leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. Xi'an 50, Zadar 27: Xi'an leads by 23 points.
Affordability. Xi'an 80, Zadar 52: Xi'an leads by 28 points.
Live music & performing arts. Xi'an 40, Zadar 28: Xi'an leads by 12 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Xi'an 40, Zadar 35: Xi'an leads by 5 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Xi'an
Best match
55match

Wins on prices and culture and sights 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.

Xi'an in July

33 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
96 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
No seasea
14 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
Xi'anZadar

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. Xi'an: 1991-2020 normals, Xi'An (4.4 km from centre). Zadar: 1999-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Zadar / Zemunik (9.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureXi'anZadar
Official languagePutonghuaCroatian
CurrencyYuan Renminbi (CNY)Euro (EUR)
SocketsACI220 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+8UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 110, ambulance 120, fire 119112
Elevation405 m5 m
Main airportXi'an Xianyang International Airport (XIY)26 km from centre178 non-stop destinationsZadar Airport (ZAD)10 km from centre66 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year6 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureXi'anZadar
City population12,952,90770,779
People per km²1,283-
Museums within 10 km91
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km22
Swim season, months above 21 °C-4 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Xi'an 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. 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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.