VacationSelector
The House of the Blackheads at dusk, Riga
RigaThe House of the Blackheads at dusk
The Bell Tower of Xi'an under a blue sky, Xi'an
Xi'anThe Bell Tower of Xi'an under a blue sky

Photos: Riga by Diliff, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Xi'an by xiquinhosilva, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Riga 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 Riga for

  • beaches
  • live music and the arts
  • nightlife

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

Choose Xi'an for

  • day trips
  • food and drink
  • prices

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. Riga 40, Xi'an 4: Riga leads by 36 points.
Food & drink. Riga 52, Xi'an 70: Xi'an leads by 18 points.
Culture & sights. Riga 66, Xi'an 81: Xi'an leads by 15 points.
Nightlife. Riga 52, Xi'an 42: Riga leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. Riga 55, Xi'an 62: Xi'an leads by 7 points.
Day trips. Riga 60, Xi'an 80: Xi'an leads by 20 points.
Good for families. Riga 50, Xi'an 48: Riga leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Riga 68, Xi'an 66: Riga leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Riga 45, Xi'an 50: Xi'an leads by 5 points.
Affordability. Riga 62, Xi'an 80: Xi'an leads by 18 points.
Live music & performing arts. Riga 65, Xi'an 40: Riga leads by 25 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Riga 50, Xi'an 40: Riga leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Riga and Xi'an.

Your match

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

Too close to call, level with your weighting

Riga
55match

Wins on beaches and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Xi'an
55match

Wins on day trips 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.

Riga in July

24 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
87 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
18 °Csea
17 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

-10°0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
RigaXi'an

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Riga: 1991-2020 normals, Riga (4.1 km from centre). Xi'an: 1991-2020 normals, Xi'An (4.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureRigaXi'an
Official languageLatvianPutonghua
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Yuan Renminbi (CNY)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzACI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+2, UTC+3 in summerUTC+8
Emergency number112Police 110, ambulance 120, fire 119
Elevation6 m405 m
Main airportRiga International Airport (RIX)9 km from centre93 non-stop destinationsXi'an Xianyang International Airport (XIY)26 km from centre178 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-6 days

By the numbers

MeasureRigaXi'an
City population588,91112,952,907
People per km²-1,283
Museums within 10 km129
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km12
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Riga 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. 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. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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.