VacationSelector
Rozenhoedkaai and the Belfry, Bruges
BrugesRozenhoedkaai and the Belfry
The Bell Tower of Xi'an under a blue sky, Xi'an
Xi'anThe Bell Tower of Xi'an under a blue sky

Photos: Bruges by Michielverbeek, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Xi'an by xiquinhosilva, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Bruges or Xi'an?

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 Bruges for

  • beaches
  • getting around
  • families

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

Choose Xi'an for

  • prices
  • nature and the outdoors
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Xi'an’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. Bruges 28, Xi'an 4: Bruges leads by 24 points.
Food & drink. Bruges 56, Xi'an 70: Xi'an leads by 14 points.
Culture & sights. Bruges 75, Xi'an 81: Xi'an leads by 6 points.
Nightlife. Bruges 27, Xi'an 42: Xi'an leads by 15 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bruges 40, Xi'an 62: Xi'an leads by 22 points.
Day trips. Bruges 85, Xi'an 80: Bruges leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Bruges 54, Xi'an 48: Bruges leads by 6 points.
Getting around. Bruges 78, Xi'an 66: Bruges leads by 12 points.
Shopping & style. Bruges 45, Xi'an 50: Xi'an leads by 5 points.
Affordability. Bruges 36, Xi'an 80: Xi'an leads by 44 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bruges and Xi'an are level on 40.
Wellness & relaxation. Bruges and Xi'an are level on 40.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Bruges and Xi'an.

Your match

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

Bruges
50match

Wins on beaches and getting around with your weighting.

Xi'an
Best match
55match

Wins on prices 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.

Bruges in July

21 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
77 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
16 hdaylight a day

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

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
BrugesXi'an

Where the figures come from

Bruges 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.

Bruges's sunshine is measured 37 km from the centre, at Vlissingen.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Bruges: 2009-2025 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Zeebrugge / Zeemanshaard (15.8 km from centre). Xi'an: 1991-2020 normals, Xi'An (4.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBrugesXi'an
Official languageFrench, German, DutchPutonghua
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Yuan Renminbi (CNY)
SocketsCE230 V, 50 HzACI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+8
Emergency number112Police 110, ambulance 120, fire 119
Elevation2 m405 m
Main airportBrussels Airport (BRU)94 km from centre191 non-stop destinationsXi'an Xianyang International Airport (XIY)26 km from centre178 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days6 days

By the numbers

MeasureBrugesXi'an
City population118,50912,952,907
People per km²8401,283
Museums within 10 km389
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km32
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Bruges or Xi'an 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.