VacationSelector
La Concha beach and Monte Urgull, San Sebastian
San SebastianLa Concha beach and Monte Urgull
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 Sebastian by Guérin Nicolas, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Xi'an by xiquinhosilva, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

San Sebastian 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 Sebastian for

  • beaches
  • food and drink
  • families

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

Choose Xi'an for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • shopping

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 Sebastian 68, Xi'an 4: San Sebastian leads by 64 points.
Food & drink. San Sebastian 88, Xi'an 70: San Sebastian leads by 18 points.
Culture & sights. San Sebastian 52, Xi'an 81: Xi'an leads by 29 points.
Nightlife. San Sebastian 44, Xi'an 42: San Sebastian leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. San Sebastian 72, Xi'an 62: San Sebastian leads by 10 points.
Day trips. San Sebastian and Xi'an are level on 80.
Good for families. San Sebastian 66, Xi'an 48: San Sebastian leads by 18 points.
Getting around. San Sebastian 80, Xi'an 66: San Sebastian leads by 14 points.
Shopping & style. San Sebastian 40, Xi'an 50: Xi'an leads by 10 points.
Affordability. San Sebastian 32, Xi'an 80: Xi'an leads by 48 points.
Live music & performing arts. San Sebastian 45, Xi'an 40: San Sebastian leads by 5 points.
Wellness & relaxation. San Sebastian 50, Xi'an 40: San Sebastian leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: San Sebastian and Xi'an.

Your match

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

San Sebastian
Best match
60match

Wins on beaches and food and drink 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.

San Sebastian in July

22 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
92 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
21 °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

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
San SebastianXi'an

Where the figures come from

San Sebastian's station stands 252 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer than the figures say.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. San Sebastian: 1991-2020 normals, San Sebastian / Igueldo (6.1 km from centre). Xi'an: 1991-2020 normals, Xi'An (4.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSan SebastianXi'an
Official languageSpanishPutonghua
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Yuan Renminbi (CNY)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzACI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+8
Emergency number112Police 110, ambulance 120, fire 119
Elevation6 m405 m
Main airportSan Sebastián Airport (EAS)16 km from centre11 non-stop destinationsXi'an Xianyang International Airport (XIY)26 km from centre178 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days6 days

By the numbers

MeasureSan SebastianXi'an
City population189,86612,952,907
People per km²3,1181,283
Museums within 10 km149
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km32
Swim season, months above 21 °C2 months-

Where else could you go?

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