VacationSelector
Rabelo boats on the Douro and the Ribeira, Porto
PortoRabelo boats on the Douro and the Ribeira
The Bell Tower of Xi'an under a blue sky, Xi'an
Xi'anThe Bell Tower of Xi'an under a blue sky

Photos: Porto by Jakub Hałun, CC BY 4.0, cropped; Xi'an by xiquinhosilva, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Porto 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 Porto for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Xi'an for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • wellness

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. Porto 40, Xi'an 4: Porto leads by 36 points.
Food & drink. Porto and Xi'an are level on 70.
Culture & sights. Porto 68, Xi'an 81: Xi'an leads by 13 points.
Nightlife. Porto 65, Xi'an 42: Porto leads by 23 points.
Nature & outdoors. Porto 64, Xi'an 62: Porto leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Porto 79, Xi'an 80: Xi'an leads by 1 points.
Good for families. Porto 52, Xi'an 48: Porto leads by 4 points.
Getting around. Porto and Xi'an are level on 66.
Shopping & style. Porto 52, Xi'an 50: Porto leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Porto 62, Xi'an 80: Xi'an leads by 18 points.
Live music & performing arts. Porto 52, Xi'an 40: Porto leads by 12 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Porto 34, Xi'an 40: Xi'an leads by 6 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Porto and Xi'an.

Your match

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

Porto
Best match
59match

Wins on beaches and nightlife with your weighting.

Xi'an
55match

Wins on prices and culture and sights with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Porto in July

25 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
22 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
17 °Csea
15 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

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
PortoXi'an

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Porto: 1991-2020 normals, Porto / Serra Do Pilar (2.1 km from centre). Xi'an: 1991-2020 normals, Xi'An (4.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePortoXi'an
Official languagePortuguesePutonghua
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Yuan Renminbi (CNY)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzACI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC+8
Emergency number112Police 110, ambulance 120, fire 119
Elevation104 m405 m
Main airportFrancisco de Sá Carneiro Airport (OPO)12 km from centre134 non-stop destinationsXi'an Xianyang International Airport (XIY)26 km from centre178 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days6 days

By the numbers

MeasurePortoXi'an
City population273,47612,952,907
People per km²6,6061,283
Museums within 10 km429
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km32
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone-

Where else could you go?

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