VacationSelector
People's Square (Narodni trg), Zadar
ZadarPeople's Square (Narodni trg)
The Limmat from Quaibrücke, Zurich
ZurichThe Limmat from Quaibrücke

Photos: Zadar by Böhringer Friedrich, CC BY-SA 2.5, cropped; Zurich by Daniel Kraft, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Zadar or Zurich?

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 Zadar for

  • prices
  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Zurich for

  • live music and the arts
  • shopping
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Zurich’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. Zadar 72, Zurich 45: Zadar leads by 27 points.
Food & drink. Zadar 45, Zurich 53: Zurich leads by 8 points.
Culture & sights. Zadar 55, Zurich 58: Zurich leads by 3 points.
Nightlife. Zadar 38, Zurich 62: Zurich leads by 24 points.
Nature & outdoors. Zadar 82, Zurich 80: Zadar leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Zadar 70, Zurich 84: Zurich leads by 14 points.
Good for families. Zadar 55, Zurich 76: Zurich leads by 21 points.
Getting around. Zadar 58, Zurich 95: Zurich leads by 37 points.
Shopping & style. Zadar 27, Zurich 66: Zurich leads by 39 points.
Affordability. Zadar 52, Zurich 3: Zadar leads by 49 points.
Live music & performing arts. Zadar 28, Zurich 70: Zurich leads by 42 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Zadar 35, Zurich 58: Zurich leads by 23 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Zadar and Zurich.

Your match

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

Zadar
51match

Wins on prices and beaches with your weighting.

Zurich
Best match
63match

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

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

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

Zurich in July

24 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
126 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
No seasea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
ZadarZurich

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. Zadar: 1999-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Zadar / Zemunik (9.9 km from centre). Zurich: 1991-2020 normals, Zurich Town / Ville. (2.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureZadarZurich
Official languageCroatianFrench, German, Italian, Romansh
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Swiss Franc (CHF)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzCJ230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation5 m408 m
Main airportZadar Airport (ZAD)10 km from centre66 non-stop destinationsZürich Airport (ZRH)9 km from centre226 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days10 days

By the numbers

MeasureZadarZurich
City population70,779440,935
People per km²-5,016
Museums within 10 km163
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
Swim season, months above 21 °C4 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Zadar or Zurich 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. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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.