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A cobbled street of painted houses in the old town, San Miguel de Allende
San Miguel de AllendeA cobbled street of painted houses in the old town
The Bell Tower of Xi'an under a blue sky, Xi'an
Xi'anThe Bell Tower of Xi'an under a blue sky

Photos: San Miguel de Allende by Russ Bowling, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Xi'an by xiquinhosilva, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

San Miguel de Allende 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 San Miguel de Allende for

  • wellness
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on San Miguel de Allende’s own page.

Choose Xi'an for

  • prices
  • nature and the outdoors
  • culture and sights

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. San Miguel de Allende and Xi'an are level on 4.
Food & drink. San Miguel de Allende 62, Xi'an 70: Xi'an leads by 8 points.
Culture & sights. San Miguel de Allende 62, Xi'an 81: Xi'an leads by 19 points.
Nightlife. San Miguel de Allende 38, Xi'an 42: Xi'an leads by 4 points.
Nature & outdoors. San Miguel de Allende 40, Xi'an 62: Xi'an leads by 22 points.
Day trips. San Miguel de Allende 77, Xi'an 80: Xi'an leads by 3 points.
Good for families. San Miguel de Allende 32, Xi'an 48: Xi'an leads by 16 points.
Getting around. San Miguel de Allende 48, Xi'an 66: Xi'an leads by 18 points.
Shopping & style. San Miguel de Allende 55, Xi'an 50: San Miguel de Allende leads by 5 points.
Affordability. San Miguel de Allende 50, Xi'an 80: Xi'an leads by 30 points.
Live music & performing arts. San Miguel de Allende and Xi'an are level on 40.
Wellness & relaxation. San Miguel de Allende 66, Xi'an 40: San Miguel de Allende leads by 26 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: San Miguel de Allende and Xi'an.

Your match

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

San Miguel de Allende
48match

Wins on wellness and shopping with your weighting.

Xi'an
Best match
55match

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

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

San Miguel de Allende in July

29 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
132 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
13 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

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
San Miguel de AllendeXi'an

Where the figures come from

San Miguel de Allende's temperatures are measured 54 km from the centre, at Guanajuato, Gto..

San Miguel de Allende 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. San Miguel de Allende: 1991-2020 normals, Guanajuato, Gto. (53.7 km from centre). Xi'an: 1991-2020 normals, Xi'An (4.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSan Miguel de AllendeXi'an
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaPutonghua
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Yuan Renminbi (CNY)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzACI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC+8
Emergency number911Police 110, ambulance 120, fire 119
Elevation1,900 m405 m
Main airportGuanajuato International Airport (BJX)77 km from centre22 non-stop destinationsXi'an Xianyang International Airport (XIY)26 km from centre178 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days6 days

By the numbers

MeasureSan Miguel de AllendeXi'an
City population69,81112,952,907
People per km²-1,283
Museums within 10 km29
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km22

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow San Miguel de Allende 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. 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. 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.