Zadar or Zagreb?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Too close to call, level with your weighting
Wins on beaches & swimming and nature & day trips with your weighting.
Wins on nightlife and sights concentration 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 Zadar if the trip is built around swimming: 49 beaches nearby and a sea that stays at 21°C or more for four months, with warmer days across the year.
Choose Zagreb if you want a city to walk: far more to see within walking distance of the centre, a wider range of restaurants and much more going on after dark.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Zadar leads by 73 points.73
| Zadar | Zagreb | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 73 | 0 |
| Swim season months | 4 | 0 |
| Beaches 10 km | 49 | 8 |
| Coast distance | 0 km | 117 km |
| Water distance | 0 km | — |
Places to eat. Zagreb leads by 27 points.27
| Zadar | Zagreb | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 25 | 52 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 143 | 374 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 11 | 27 |
Museums & heritage. Zagreb leads by 12 points.12
| Zadar | Zagreb | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 33 | 45 |
| Museums within 10 km | 8 | 41 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 8 | 40 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 100 | 98 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 2 | 0 |
Nightlife. Zagreb leads by 36 points.36
| Zadar | Zagreb | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 25 | 61 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 194 | 1,009 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 139 | 571 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 72 | 57 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 4 | 63 |
Nature & day trips. Zadar leads by 21 points.21
| Zadar | Zagreb | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 55 | 34 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 12 | 9 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 0 | 0 |
| Land share of disc % | 47 | 100 |
| Park area within 2 km | 30 hectares | 52 hectares |
Good for families. Zadar leads by 3 points.3
| Zadar | Zagreb | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 31 | 28 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 9 | 7 |
| Park area within 2 km | 30 hectares | 52 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 1 | 0 |
Sights concentration. Zagreb leads by 29 points.29
| Zadar | Zagreb | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 31 | 60 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 23 | 122 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Zadar and Zagreb are level on 80.
| Zadar | Zagreb | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 80 | 80 |
| Price level global | 48.5 | 48.5 |
| Daily budget | €138 | €138 |
Year-round weather. Zadar leads by 7 points.7
| Zadar | Zagreb | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 69 | 62 |
| Monthly daytime high | 10.4 °C to 31 °C | 5.4 °C to 28.5 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 25 mm to 117 mm | 47 mm to 104 mm |
| Dry months | 2 | 0 |
Where they differ
Zadar is the coastal option: 49 beaches nearby against Zagreb's 8, and four months when the sea sits at 21°C or above, which Zagreb never reaches. The countryside around it is more protected too, 12% of the land against 9%.
Zagreb concentrates its interest in the centre, with many times more notable places within walking distance. It has roughly three times as many restaurants near the centre and a much wider range of kitchens, plus many more bars and clubs, spread more widely across the city.
Where they are alike
Neither city is built around families, and each covers a different part of it: Zadar has somewhat more tourist attractions near the centre and one theme park within reach, Zagreb about twice as much park space near the centre.
Both peak in July, Zadar at 31°C and Zagreb at 29°C, and both are coldest in January. On heritage, Zagreb has many more museums while Zadar has 2 UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach.
Which traveller are you?
Swimmers and anyone who wants water at the centre of the trip: Zadar, with 49 beaches nearby and four months of sea at 21°C or more, plus more protected land within day-trip range.
Anyone travelling to eat and stay out late: Zagreb, with about three times as many restaurants near the centre, a wider range of kitchens, and many more bars and clubs to move between.
Museum-minded visitors on a short stay: Zagreb again, since its notable places sit close together and its museums are far more numerous. Zadar suits those who prefer heritage reached by car, with 2 UNESCO-listed sites in day-trip range.
What the numbers don't tell you
The value figure here is a national price level, identical for both by construction, so the comparison between these two cities carries no information. The daily budget of €138 is one national estimate rather than a measurement of either place, and it says nothing about which of the two will cost you more.
No weather station near Zadar records sunshine hours, so that figure is missing rather than low, and its monthly picture rests on temperature, rainfall and sea temperature alone. That leaves one side of the weather comparison unmeasured: Zadar's warmer days, 31°C in midsummer against Zagreb's 29°C, are measured, the hours of light are not.
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.
Temperature and rainfall are thirty-year climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Zadar: 1999-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Zadar / Zemunik (9.9 km from centre). Zagreb: 1991-2020 normals, Zagreb / Gric (0.6 km from centre).
Zadar's window runs June to September. Midsummer brings 31°C days and the driest weeks of the year, 25-32mm a month, with the sea at its warmest, 25°C. Autumn turns wet, over 80mm a month once autumn starts, so a swimming trip is best kept to high summer.
Zagreb works May to August, with 23-29°C days, but its summer rain is heavier, 85-90mm a month, and September is its wettest at 104mm. Winter is the weak stretch, with January highs of 5°C.
Getting there
| Flying from | Zadar | Zagreb |
|---|---|---|
| AmsterdamAMS | 2 h 10 m €186-201 1 stop SPU · 107 km | 2 h 0 m no fares ZAG · 11 km |
| ParisCDG, ORY, BVA | 2 h 5 m €169-225 SPU · 107 km | 1 h 55 m no fares ZAG · 11 km |
| FrankfurtFRA, HHN | 1 h 40 m €161-226 1 stop ZAD · 10 km | 1 h 30 m no fares ZAG · 11 km |
| MunichMUC | 1 h 25 m no fares SPU · 107 km | 1 h 10 m no fares ZAG · 11 km |
| LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2 | 2 h 20 m no fares ZAD · 10 km | 2 h 15 m no fares ZAG · 11 km |
| RomeFCO, CIA | 1 h 5 m €294 SPU · 107 km | 1 h 20 m no fares ZAG · 11 km |
| ViennaVIE | 1 h 10 m €45-192 ZAD · 10 km | 1 h 0 m no fares ZAG · 11 km |
| IstanbulIST, SAW | 1 h 55 m no fares SPU · 107 km | 2 h 0 m €153-254 ZAG · 11 km |
| DubrovnikDBV | 55 m no fares SPU · 107 km | 1 h 10 m no fares ZAG · 11 km |
| BrusselsBRU, CRL | 2 h 0 m no fares ZAD · 10 km | 1 h 55 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 2026-09 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
| Measure | Zadar | Zagreb |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | Croatian | Croatian |
| Currency | Euro (EUR) | Euro (EUR) |
| Sockets | CF230 V, 50 Hz | CF230 V, 50 Hz |
| Driving side | Right | Right |
| Time zone | UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer | UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer |
| Emergency number | 112 | 112 |
| Elevation | 5 m | 127 m |
| Main airport | Zadar Airport (ZAD)10 km from centre67 non-stop destinations | Zagreb Franjo Tuđman International Airport (ZAG)11 km from centre60 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 14 days | 14 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Zadar | Zagreb |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 70,779 | 767,131 |
| Museums within 10 km | 1 | 27 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 2 | 0 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 17 | 42 |
| 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 Zadar or Zagreb somewhere new.