VacationSelector
The Old Port and Le Suquet, Cannes
CannesThe Old Port and Le Suquet
The Bell Tower of Xi'an under a blue sky, Xi'an
Xi'anThe Bell Tower of Xi'an under a blue sky

Photos: Cannes by qwesy qwesy, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Xi'an by xiquinhosilva, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Cannes 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 Cannes for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • shopping

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

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.

Scoreboard

Twelve categories on one fixed scale from 0 to 100. The shaded stretch is the gap between the two.

Beaches & swimming. Cannes 80, Xi'an 4: Cannes leads by 76 points.
Food & drink. Cannes 55, Xi'an 70: Xi'an leads by 15 points.
Culture & sights. Cannes 38, Xi'an 81: Xi'an leads by 43 points.
Nightlife. Cannes and Xi'an are level on 42.
Nature & outdoors. Cannes 72, Xi'an 62: Cannes leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Cannes 86, Xi'an 80: Cannes leads by 6 points.
Good for families. Cannes 56, Xi'an 48: Cannes leads by 8 points.
Getting around. Cannes 68, Xi'an 66: Cannes leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Cannes 60, Xi'an 50: Cannes leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Cannes 22, Xi'an 80: Xi'an leads by 58 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cannes 38, Xi'an 40: Xi'an leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cannes 42, Xi'an 40: Cannes leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cannes and Xi'an.

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

Cannes
55match

Wins on beaches and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Xi'an
55match

Wins on prices and culture and sights with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Cannes in July

29 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
13 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
24 °Csea
15 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

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
CannesXi'an

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cannes: 2004-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Cannes (5.8 km from centre). Xi'an: 1991-2020 normals, Xi'An (4.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCannesXi'an
Official languageFrenchPutonghua
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
Elevation0 m405 m
Main airportNice-Côte d'Azur Airport (NCE)20 km from centre130 non-stop destinationsXi'an Xianyang International Airport (XIY)26 km from centre178 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days6 days

By the numbers

MeasureCannesXi'an
City population74,35012,952,907
People per km²3,7931,283
Museums within 10 km169
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km22
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 Cannes 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.