VacationSelector
A dhow below the towers of West Bay, Doha
DohaA dhow below the towers of West Bay
The Bell Tower of Xi'an under a blue sky, Xi'an
Xi'anThe Bell Tower of Xi'an under a blue sky

Photos: Doha by Gregory Hawken Kramer, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Xi'an by xiquinhosilva, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Doha 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 Doha for

  • beaches
  • families
  • shopping

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

Choose Xi'an for

  • day trips
  • nature and the outdoors
  • prices

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. Doha 45, Xi'an 4: Doha leads by 41 points.
Food & drink. Doha 55, Xi'an 70: Xi'an leads by 15 points.
Culture & sights. Doha 55, Xi'an 81: Xi'an leads by 26 points.
Nightlife. Doha 20, Xi'an 42: Xi'an leads by 22 points.
Nature & outdoors. Doha 7, Xi'an 62: Xi'an leads by 55 points.
Day trips. Doha 5, Xi'an 80: Xi'an leads by 75 points.
Good for families. Doha 60, Xi'an 48: Doha leads by 12 points.
Getting around. Doha 45, Xi'an 66: Xi'an leads by 21 points.
Shopping & style. Doha 60, Xi'an 50: Doha leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Doha 38, Xi'an 80: Xi'an leads by 42 points.
Live music & performing arts. Doha 30, Xi'an 40: Xi'an leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Doha 38, Xi'an 40: Xi'an leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Doha and Xi'an.

Your match

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

Doha
38match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

Xi'an
Best match
55match

Wins on day trips 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.

Doha in July

43 °Cdaytime high
33 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
33 °Csea
14 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°50°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
DohaXi'an

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Doha: 1991-2020 normals, Doha International Airport (5.5 km from centre). Xi'an: 1991-2020 normals, Xi'An (4.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureDohaXi'an
Official languageArabicPutonghua
CurrencyQatari Rial (QAR)Yuan Renminbi (CNY)
SocketsG240 V, 50 HzACI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+3UTC+8
Emergency number999Police 110, ambulance 120, fire 119
Elevation0 m405 m
Main airportHamad International Airport (DOH)8 km from centre195 non-stop destinationsXi'an Xianyang International Airport (XIY)26 km from centre178 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-6 days

By the numbers

MeasureDohaXi'an
City population1,186,02312,952,907
People per km²8,9851,283
Museums within 10 km69
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
Swim season, months above 21 °C9 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Doha 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). 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. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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.