VacationSelector
Barlas Island in Honda Bay, Puerto Princesa
Puerto PrincesaBarlas Island in Honda Bay
The Bell Tower of Xi'an under a blue sky, Xi'an
Xi'anThe Bell Tower of Xi'an under a blue sky

Photos: Puerto Princesa by Ray in Manila, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Xi'an by xiquinhosilva, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Puerto Princesa 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 Puerto Princesa for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Xi'an for

  • day trips
  • culture and sights
  • 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. Puerto Princesa 58, Xi'an 4: Puerto Princesa leads by 54 points.
Food & drink. Puerto Princesa 38, Xi'an 70: Xi'an leads by 32 points.
Culture & sights. Puerto Princesa 22, Xi'an 81: Xi'an leads by 59 points.
Nightlife. Puerto Princesa 26, Xi'an 42: Xi'an leads by 16 points.
Nature & outdoors. Puerto Princesa 80, Xi'an 62: Puerto Princesa leads by 18 points.
Day trips. Puerto Princesa 12, Xi'an 80: Xi'an leads by 68 points.
Good for families. Puerto Princesa 45, Xi'an 48: Xi'an leads by 3 points.
Getting around. Puerto Princesa 30, Xi'an 66: Xi'an leads by 36 points.
Shopping & style. Puerto Princesa 20, Xi'an 50: Xi'an leads by 30 points.
Affordability. Puerto Princesa 78, Xi'an 80: Xi'an leads by 2 points.
Live music & performing arts. Puerto Princesa 10, Xi'an 40: Xi'an leads by 30 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Puerto Princesa and Xi'an are level on 40.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Puerto Princesa and Xi'an.

Your match

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

Puerto Princesa
38match

Wins on beaches and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Xi'an
Best match
55match

Wins on day trips 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.

Puerto Princesa in July

29 °Cdaytime high
27 °Cnight-time low
216 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
29 °Csea
13 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
Puerto PrincesaXi'an

Where the figures come from

Puerto Princesa has no weather station within reach, so its figures come from a gridded climate model rather than a measured record, and read a broad area rather than the city itself.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Puerto Princesa: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km. Xi'an: 1991-2020 normals, Xi'An (4.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePuerto PrincesaXi'an
Official languageEnglish, Filipino, TaglishPutonghua
CurrencyPhilippine Peso (PHP)Yuan Renminbi (CNY)
SocketsABC220 V, 60 HzACI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+8UTC+8
Emergency number911Police 110, ambulance 120, fire 119
Elevation98 m405 m
Main airportPuerto Princesa International Airport / PAF Antonio Bautista Air Base (PPS)2 km from centre5 non-stop destinationsXi'an Xianyang International Airport (XIY)26 km from centre178 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year18 days6 days

By the numbers

MeasurePuerto PrincesaXi'an
City population316,38412,952,907
People per km²1331,283
Museums within 10 km19
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Puerto Princesa or Xi'an somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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. Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. 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.