VacationSelector
The Aare at Unterseen, Interlaken, Interlaken
InterlakenThe Aare at Unterseen, Interlaken
The Bell Tower of Xi'an under a blue sky, Xi'an
Xi'anThe Bell Tower of Xi'an under a blue sky

Photos: Interlaken by Roy Egloff, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Xi'an by xiquinhosilva, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Interlaken 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 Interlaken for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • beaches
  • families

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

Choose Xi'an for

  • culture and sights
  • prices
  • 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. Interlaken 30, Xi'an 4: Interlaken leads by 26 points.
Food & drink. Interlaken 25, Xi'an 70: Xi'an leads by 45 points.
Culture & sights. Interlaken 8, Xi'an 81: Xi'an leads by 73 points.
Nightlife. Interlaken 15, Xi'an 42: Xi'an leads by 27 points.
Nature & outdoors. Interlaken 97, Xi'an 62: Interlaken leads by 35 points.
Day trips. Interlaken 78, Xi'an 80: Xi'an leads by 2 points.
Good for families. Interlaken 72, Xi'an 48: Interlaken leads by 24 points.
Getting around. Interlaken 80, Xi'an 66: Interlaken leads by 14 points.
Shopping & style. Interlaken 22, Xi'an 50: Xi'an leads by 28 points.
Affordability. Interlaken 8, Xi'an 80: Xi'an leads by 72 points.
Live music & performing arts. Interlaken 15, Xi'an 40: Xi'an leads by 25 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Interlaken and Xi'an are level on 40.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Interlaken and Xi'an.

Your match

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

Interlaken
41match

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

Xi'an
Best match
55match

Wins on culture and sights and prices with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Interlaken in July

24 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
126 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
15 hdaylight a day

Xi'an in July

33 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
96 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
InterlakenXi'an

Where the figures come from

Interlaken 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. Interlaken: 2005-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Meiringen / Unterbach (19.3 km from centre). Xi'an: 1991-2020 normals, Xi'An (4.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureInterlakenXi'an
Official languageFrench, German, Italian, RomanshPutonghua
CurrencySwiss Franc (CHF)Yuan Renminbi (CNY)
SocketsCJ230 V, 50 HzACI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+8
Emergency number112Police 110, ambulance 120, fire 119
Elevation571 m405 m
Main airportZürich Airport (ZRH)100 km from centre226 non-stop destinationsXi'an Xianyang International Airport (XIY)26 km from centre178 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days6 days

By the numbers

MeasureInterlakenXi'an
City population6,12312,952,907
People per km²1,4241,283
Museums within 10 km39
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km22

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Interlaken 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. 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.