VacationSelector
The Forbidden City, Beijing
BeijingThe Forbidden City
The City of Arts and Sciences, Valencia
ValenciaThe City of Arts and Sciences

Photos: Beijing by BI ravencrow, Pexels License; Valencia by Francesco Ungaro, Pexels License.

Beijing or Valencia?

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 Beijing for

  • culture and sights
  • day trips
  • shopping

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

Choose Valencia for

  • beaches
  • families
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Valencia’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. Beijing 6, Valencia 78: Valencia leads by 72 points.
Food & drink. Beijing 81, Valencia 74: Beijing leads by 7 points.
Culture & sights. Beijing 93, Valencia 68: Beijing leads by 25 points.
Nightlife. Beijing 58, Valencia 66: Valencia leads by 8 points.
Nature & outdoors. Beijing and Valencia are level on 60.
Day trips. Beijing 85, Valencia 70: Beijing leads by 15 points.
Good for families. Beijing 64, Valencia 75: Valencia leads by 11 points.
Getting around. Beijing 69, Valencia 76: Valencia leads by 7 points.
Shopping & style. Beijing 72, Valencia 57: Beijing leads by 15 points.
Affordability. Beijing 68, Valencia 57: Beijing leads by 11 points.
Live music & performing arts. Beijing 68, Valencia 55: Beijing leads by 13 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Beijing 55, Valencia 42: Beijing leads by 13 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Beijing and Valencia.

Your match

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

Too close to call, level with your weighting

Beijing
65match

Wins on culture and sights and day trips with your weighting.

Valencia
65match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Beijing in July

32 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
163 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Valencia in July

30 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
7 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
BeijingValencia

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Beijing: 1991-2020 normals, Beijing (11.1 km from centre). Valencia: 1991-2020 normals, Valencia (1.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBeijingValencia
Official languagePutonghuaSpanish
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
Elevation43 m15 m
Main airportBeijing Capital International Airport (PEK)25 km from centre104 non-stop destinationsValencia Airport (VLC)9 km from centre109 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year6 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureBeijingValencia
City population21,893,095840,792
People per km²1,3346,242
Museums within 10 km8345
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km62
Swim season, months above 21 °C-5 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Beijing or Valencia 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.