VacationSelector
The lighthouse in the Paphos Archaeological Park, Paphos
PaphosThe lighthouse in the Paphos Archaeological Park
The Bell Tower of Xi'an under a blue sky, Xi'an
Xi'anThe Bell Tower of Xi'an under a blue sky

Photos: Paphos by Nikodem Nijaki, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Xi'an by xiquinhosilva, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Paphos 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 Paphos for

  • beaches
  • families
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Xi'an for

  • prices
  • getting around
  • 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. Paphos 76, Xi'an 4: Paphos leads by 72 points.
Food & drink. Paphos 45, Xi'an 70: Xi'an leads by 25 points.
Culture & sights. Paphos 62, Xi'an 81: Xi'an leads by 19 points.
Nightlife. Paphos 38, Xi'an 42: Xi'an leads by 4 points.
Nature & outdoors. Paphos 70, Xi'an 62: Paphos leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Paphos 64, Xi'an 80: Xi'an leads by 16 points.
Good for families. Paphos 68, Xi'an 48: Paphos leads by 20 points.
Getting around. Paphos 40, Xi'an 66: Xi'an leads by 26 points.
Shopping & style. Paphos 25, Xi'an 50: Xi'an leads by 25 points.
Affordability. Paphos 52, Xi'an 80: Xi'an leads by 28 points.
Live music & performing arts. Paphos 22, Xi'an 40: Xi'an leads by 18 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Paphos 42, Xi'an 40: Paphos leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Paphos and Xi'an.

Your match

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

Paphos
50match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

Xi'an
Best match
55match

Wins on prices 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.

Paphos in July

30 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
27 °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

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
PaphosXi'an

Where the figures come from

Paphos 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. Paphos: 1991-2020 normals, Paphos Airport (8.4 km from centre). Xi'an: 1991-2020 normals, Xi'An (4.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePaphosXi'an
Official languageTurkish, Greek, Modern GreekPutonghua
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Yuan Renminbi (CNY)
SocketsG240 V, 50 HzACI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+2, UTC+3 in summerUTC+8
Emergency number112Police 110, ambulance 120, fire 119
Elevation72 m405 m
Main airportPaphos International Airport (PFO)8 km from centre58 non-stop destinationsXi'an Xianyang International Airport (XIY)26 km from centre178 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year17 days6 days

By the numbers

MeasurePaphosXi'an
City population35,96112,952,907
People per km²1,9871,283
Museums within 10 km49
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km22
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 Paphos 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). 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.