VacationSelector
A paraglider over the beach at Ölüdeniz, Fethiye
FethiyeA paraglider over the beach at Ölüdeniz
The Bell Tower of Xi'an under a blue sky, Xi'an
Xi'anThe Bell Tower of Xi'an under a blue sky

Photos: Fethiye by rheins, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Xi'an by xiquinhosilva, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Fethiye 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 Fethiye for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness

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

Choose Xi'an for

  • culture and sights
  • food and drink
  • live music and the arts

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. Fethiye 82, Xi'an 4: Fethiye leads by 78 points.
Food & drink. Fethiye 45, Xi'an 70: Xi'an leads by 25 points.
Culture & sights. Fethiye 35, Xi'an 81: Xi'an leads by 46 points.
Nightlife. Fethiye and Xi'an are level on 42.
Nature & outdoors. Fethiye 84, Xi'an 62: Fethiye leads by 22 points.
Day trips. Fethiye 76, Xi'an 80: Xi'an leads by 4 points.
Good for families. Fethiye 60, Xi'an 48: Fethiye leads by 12 points.
Getting around. Fethiye 50, Xi'an 66: Xi'an leads by 16 points.
Shopping & style. Fethiye 38, Xi'an 50: Xi'an leads by 12 points.
Affordability. Fethiye 62, Xi'an 80: Xi'an leads by 18 points.
Live music & performing arts. Fethiye 15, Xi'an 40: Xi'an leads by 25 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Fethiye 55, Xi'an 40: Fethiye leads by 15 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Fethiye and Xi'an.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Fethiye
54match

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

Xi'an
55match

Wins on culture and sights and food and drink with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Fethiye in July

32 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
8 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
26 °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°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
FethiyeXi'an

Where the figures come from

Fethiye's temperatures are measured 31 km from the centre, at Dalaman.

Fethiye 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. Fethiye: 2000-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Dalaman (30.8 km from centre). Xi'an: 1991-2020 normals, Xi'An (4.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureFethiyeXi'an
Official languageTurkishPutonghua
CurrencyTurkish Lira (TRY)Yuan Renminbi (CNY)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzACI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+3UTC+8
Emergency number112Police 110, ambulance 120, fire 119
Elevation0 m405 m
Main airportDalaman International Airport (DLM)30 km from centre61 non-stop destinationsXi'an Xianyang International Airport (XIY)26 km from centre178 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days6 days

By the numbers

MeasureFethiyeXi'an
City population182,20012,952,907
People per km²-1,283
Museums within 10 km19
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km12
Swim season, months above 21 °C6 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Fethiye 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). 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. 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.