VacationSelector
The adobe New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe
Santa FeThe adobe New Mexico Museum of Art
The Bell Tower of Xi'an under a blue sky, Xi'an
Xi'anThe Bell Tower of Xi'an under a blue sky

Photos: Santa Fe by dconvertini, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Xi'an by xiquinhosilva, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Santa Fe 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 Santa Fe for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • live music and the arts
  • wellness

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

Choose Xi'an for

  • prices
  • getting around
  • nightlife

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. Santa Fe 5, Xi'an 4: Santa Fe leads by 1 points.
Food & drink. Santa Fe 62, Xi'an 70: Xi'an leads by 8 points.
Culture & sights. Santa Fe 66, Xi'an 81: Xi'an leads by 15 points.
Nightlife. Santa Fe 22, Xi'an 42: Xi'an leads by 20 points.
Nature & outdoors. Santa Fe 80, Xi'an 62: Santa Fe leads by 18 points.
Day trips. Santa Fe 70, Xi'an 80: Xi'an leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Santa Fe 45, Xi'an 48: Xi'an leads by 3 points.
Getting around. Santa Fe 40, Xi'an 66: Xi'an leads by 26 points.
Shopping & style. Santa Fe 62, Xi'an 50: Santa Fe leads by 12 points.
Affordability. Santa Fe 30, Xi'an 80: Xi'an leads by 50 points.
Live music & performing arts. Santa Fe 55, Xi'an 40: Santa Fe leads by 15 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Santa Fe 55, Xi'an 40: Santa Fe leads by 15 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Santa Fe and Xi'an.

Your match

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

Santa Fe
49match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Xi'an
Best match
55match

Wins on prices and getting around with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Santa Fe in July

31 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
60 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
14 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

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
Santa FeXi'an

Where the figures come from

Santa Fe's station stands 199 m below the city centre, so the centre is likely a little cooler than the figures say.

Santa Fe 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. Santa Fe: 1991-2020 normals, Santa Fe / Cieneguilla (12.4 km from centre). Xi'an: 1991-2020 normals, Xi'An (4.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSanta FeXi'an
Official language-Putonghua
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Yuan Renminbi (CNY)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzACI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-7, UTC-6 in summerUTC+8
Emergency number911Police 110, ambulance 120, fire 119
Elevation2,134 m405 m
Main airportSanta Fe Municipal Airport (SAF)12 km from centre5 non-stop destinationsXi'an Xianyang International Airport (XIY)26 km from centre178 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days6 days

By the numbers

MeasureSanta FeXi'an
City population87,50512,952,907
People per km²6451,283
Museums within 10 km109
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 Santa Fe 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.