VacationSelector
The Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier, Santa Monica
Santa MonicaThe Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier
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 Monica by Domenico Convertini, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Xi'an by xiquinhosilva, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Santa Monica 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 Monica for

  • beaches
  • families
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Xi'an for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • 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. Santa Monica 66, Xi'an 4: Santa Monica leads by 62 points.
Food & drink. Santa Monica 60, Xi'an 70: Xi'an leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. Santa Monica 35, Xi'an 81: Xi'an leads by 46 points.
Nightlife. Santa Monica 38, Xi'an 42: Xi'an leads by 4 points.
Nature & outdoors. Santa Monica 72, Xi'an 62: Santa Monica leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Santa Monica 64, Xi'an 80: Xi'an leads by 16 points.
Good for families. Santa Monica 70, Xi'an 48: Santa Monica leads by 22 points.
Getting around. Santa Monica 52, Xi'an 66: Xi'an leads by 14 points.
Shopping & style. Santa Monica 56, Xi'an 50: Santa Monica leads by 6 points.
Affordability. Santa Monica 14, Xi'an 80: Xi'an leads by 66 points.
Live music & performing arts. Santa Monica 38, Xi'an 40: Xi'an leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Santa Monica 45, Xi'an 40: Santa Monica leads by 5 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Santa Monica and Xi'an.

Your match

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

Santa Monica
51match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

Xi'an
Best match
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.

Santa Monica in July

24 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
20 °Csea
14 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

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
Santa MonicaXi'an

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Santa Monica: 1991-2020 normals, Los Angeles Airport (13.4 km from centre). Xi'an: 1991-2020 normals, Xi'An (4.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSanta MonicaXi'an
Official language-Putonghua
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Yuan Renminbi (CNY)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzACI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-8, UTC-7 in summerUTC+8
Emergency number911Police 110, ambulance 120, fire 119
Elevation32 m405 m
Main airportLos Angeles International Airport (LAX)11 km from centre177 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 MonicaXi'an
City population93,07612,952,907
People per km²4,2701,283
Museums within 10 km199
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 Santa Monica 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). 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.