VacationSelector
The colonnaded court of Luxor Temple, Luxor
LuxorThe colonnaded court of Luxor Temple
The Bell Tower of Xi'an under a blue sky, Xi'an
Xi'anThe Bell Tower of Xi'an under a blue sky

Photos: Luxor by Dennis G. Jarvis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Xi'an by xiquinhosilva, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Luxor 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 Luxor for

  • culture and sights
  • prices
  • beaches

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

Choose Xi'an for

  • food and drink
  • nightlife
  • getting around

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. Luxor 6, Xi'an 4: Luxor leads by 2 points.
Food & drink. Luxor 30, Xi'an 70: Xi'an leads by 40 points.
Culture & sights. Luxor 95, Xi'an 81: Luxor leads by 14 points.
Nightlife. Luxor 10, Xi'an 42: Xi'an leads by 32 points.
Nature & outdoors. Luxor 32, Xi'an 62: Xi'an leads by 30 points.
Day trips. Luxor 62, Xi'an 80: Xi'an leads by 18 points.
Good for families. Luxor 30, Xi'an 48: Xi'an leads by 18 points.
Getting around. Luxor 35, Xi'an 66: Xi'an leads by 31 points.
Shopping & style. Luxor 25, Xi'an 50: Xi'an leads by 25 points.
Affordability. Luxor 90, Xi'an 80: Luxor leads by 10 points.
Live music & performing arts. Luxor 10, Xi'an 40: Xi'an leads by 30 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Luxor 28, Xi'an 40: Xi'an leads by 12 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Luxor and Xi'an.

Your match

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

Luxor
38match

Wins on culture and sights and prices with your weighting.

Xi'an
Best match
55match

Wins on food and drink and nightlife with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Luxor in July

41 °Cdaytime high
27 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
14 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°50°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
LuxorXi'an

Where the figures come from

Luxor 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. Luxor: 1998-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Luxor (6.5 km from centre). Xi'an: 1991-2020 normals, Xi'An (4.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLuxorXi'an
Official languageArabicPutonghua
CurrencyEgyptian Pound (EGP)Yuan Renminbi (CNY)
SocketsCF220 V, 50 HzACI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+2, UTC+3 in summerUTC+8
Emergency numberPolice 122, ambulance 123, fire 180Police 110, ambulance 120, fire 119
Elevation89 m405 m
Main airportLuxor International Airport (LXR)7 km from centre29 non-stop destinationsXi'an Xianyang International Airport (XIY)26 km from centre178 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year15 days6 days

By the numbers

MeasureLuxorXi'an
City population202,23212,952,907
People per km²4861,283
Museums within 10 km49
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km12

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Luxor 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). 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.