VacationSelector
The wharf at Queenstown with the Remarkables behind, Queenstown
QueenstownThe wharf at Queenstown with the Remarkables behind
The Bell Tower of Xi'an under a blue sky, Xi'an
Xi'anThe Bell Tower of Xi'an under a blue sky

Photos: Queenstown by Robert Linsdell, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Xi'an by xiquinhosilva, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Queenstown 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 Queenstown for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • beaches
  • families

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

Choose Xi'an for

  • culture and sights
  • prices
  • 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. Queenstown 20, Xi'an 4: Queenstown leads by 16 points.
Food & drink. Queenstown 45, Xi'an 70: Xi'an leads by 25 points.
Culture & sights. Queenstown 12, Xi'an 81: Xi'an leads by 69 points.
Nightlife. Queenstown and Xi'an are level on 42.
Nature & outdoors. Queenstown 97, Xi'an 62: Queenstown leads by 35 points.
Day trips. Queenstown 50, Xi'an 80: Xi'an leads by 30 points.
Good for families. Queenstown 60, Xi'an 48: Queenstown leads by 12 points.
Getting around. Queenstown 45, Xi'an 66: Xi'an leads by 21 points.
Shopping & style. Queenstown 28, Xi'an 50: Xi'an leads by 22 points.
Affordability. Queenstown 20, Xi'an 80: Xi'an leads by 60 points.
Live music & performing arts. Queenstown 14, Xi'an 40: Xi'an leads by 26 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Queenstown 42, Xi'an 40: Queenstown leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Queenstown and Xi'an.

Your match

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

Queenstown
40match

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

Xi'an
Best match
55match

Wins on culture and sights and prices with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Queenstown in July

6 °Cdaytime high
-1 °Cnight-time low
115 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
9 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

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
QueenstownXi'an

Where the figures come from

Queenstown 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. Queenstown: 1991-2020 normals, TerraClimate 4 km grid at the town, no weather station within 90 km. Xi'an: 1991-2020 normals, Xi'An (4.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureQueenstownXi'an
Official languageEnglish, New Zealand Sign Language, MāoriPutonghua
CurrencyNew Zealand Dollar (NZD)Yuan Renminbi (CNY)
SocketsI230 V, 50 HzACI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+12, UTC+13 in summerUTC+8
Emergency number111Police 110, ambulance 120, fire 119
Elevation324 m405 m
Main airportQueenstown Airport (ZQN)7 km from centre7 non-stop destinationsXi'an Xianyang International Airport (XIY)26 km from centre178 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days6 days

By the numbers

MeasureQueenstownXi'an
City population29,00012,952,907
People per km²-1,283
Museums within 10 km09
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02

Where else could you go?

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

Browse every destination

Sources

Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national 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. 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.