VacationSelector
Parliament Hill across the Ottawa River, Ottawa
OttawaParliament Hill across the Ottawa River
The Bell Tower of Xi'an under a blue sky, Xi'an
Xi'anThe Bell Tower of Xi'an under a blue sky

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

Ottawa 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 Ottawa for

  • beaches
  • families
  • wellness

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

Choose Xi'an for

  • prices
  • food and drink
  • day trips

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. Ottawa 35, Xi'an 4: Ottawa leads by 31 points.
Food & drink. Ottawa 45, Xi'an 70: Xi'an leads by 25 points.
Culture & sights. Ottawa 62, Xi'an 81: Xi'an leads by 19 points.
Nightlife. Ottawa 35, Xi'an 42: Xi'an leads by 7 points.
Nature & outdoors. Ottawa 68, Xi'an 62: Ottawa leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Ottawa 55, Xi'an 80: Xi'an leads by 25 points.
Good for families. Ottawa 68, Xi'an 48: Ottawa leads by 20 points.
Getting around. Ottawa 62, Xi'an 66: Xi'an leads by 4 points.
Shopping & style. Ottawa 40, Xi'an 50: Xi'an leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Ottawa 40, Xi'an 80: Xi'an leads by 40 points.
Live music & performing arts. Ottawa 52, Xi'an 40: Ottawa leads by 12 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Ottawa 55, Xi'an 40: Ottawa leads by 15 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Ottawa and Xi'an.

Your match

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

Ottawa
51match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

Xi'an
Best match
55match

Wins on prices 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.

Ottawa in July

27 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
82 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

-10°0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
OttawaXi'an

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Ottawa: 1991-2020 normals, Ottawa CDA RCS (5.3 km from centre). Xi'an: 1991-2020 normals, Xi'An (4.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureOttawaXi'an
Official languageFrench, EnglishPutonghua
CurrencyCanadian Dollar (CAD)Yuan Renminbi (CNY)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzACI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC+8
Emergency number911Police 110, ambulance 120, fire 119
Elevation70 m405 m
Main airportOttawa Macdonald-Cartier International Airport (YOW)12 km from centre46 non-stop destinationsXi'an Xianyang International Airport (XIY)26 km from centre178 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days6 days

By the numbers

MeasureOttawaXi'an
City population1,017,44912,952,907
People per km²3661,283
Museums within 10 km209
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 Ottawa 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). 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.