VacationSelector
The white beach below the high-rise hotels, Orange Beach
Orange BeachThe white beach below the high-rise hotels
The Bell Tower of Xi'an under a blue sky, Xi'an
Xi'anThe Bell Tower of Xi'an under a blue sky

Photos: Orange Beach by WeaponizingArchitecture, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Xi'an by xiquinhosilva, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Orange Beach 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 Orange Beach for

  • beaches
  • families

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

Choose Xi'an for

  • culture and sights
  • getting around
  • 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. Orange Beach 86, Xi'an 4: Orange Beach leads by 82 points.
Food & drink. Orange Beach 40, Xi'an 70: Xi'an leads by 30 points.
Culture & sights. Orange Beach 7, Xi'an 81: Xi'an leads by 74 points.
Nightlife. Orange Beach 30, Xi'an 42: Xi'an leads by 12 points.
Nature & outdoors. Orange Beach 60, Xi'an 62: Xi'an leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Orange Beach 50, Xi'an 80: Xi'an leads by 30 points.
Good for families. Orange Beach 75, Xi'an 48: Orange Beach leads by 27 points.
Getting around. Orange Beach 15, Xi'an 66: Xi'an leads by 51 points.
Shopping & style. Orange Beach 25, Xi'an 50: Xi'an leads by 25 points.
Affordability. Orange Beach 38, Xi'an 80: Xi'an leads by 42 points.
Live music & performing arts. Orange Beach 32, Xi'an 40: Xi'an leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Orange Beach 32, Xi'an 40: Xi'an leads by 8 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Orange Beach and Xi'an.

Your match

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

Orange Beach
41match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

Xi'an
Best match
55match

Wins on culture and sights and getting around with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Orange Beach in July

32 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
200 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
29 °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

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Orange BeachXi'an

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Orange Beach: 2006-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Gulf Shores / Bay Village Mobile Home Park (10.5 km from centre). Xi'an: 1991-2020 normals, Xi'An (4.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureOrange BeachXi'an
Official language-Putonghua
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Yuan Renminbi (CNY)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzACI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6, UTC-5 in summerUTC+8
Emergency number911Police 110, ambulance 120, fire 119
Elevation4 m405 m
Main airportPensacola International Airport (PNS)41 km from centre27 non-stop destinationsXi'an Xianyang International Airport (XIY)26 km from centre178 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days6 days

By the numbers

MeasureOrange BeachXi'an
City population8,09512,952,907
People per km²1961,283
Museums within 10 km09
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
Swim season, months above 21 °C8 months-

Where else could you go?

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