VacationSelector
The statue of Columbus in Parque Colon before the cathedral, Santo Domingo
Santo DomingoThe statue of Columbus in Parque Colon before the cathedral
The Bell Tower of Xi'an under a blue sky, Xi'an
Xi'anThe Bell Tower of Xi'an under a blue sky

Photos: Santo Domingo by Dr. Thomas Liptak, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Xi'an by xiquinhosilva, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Santo Domingo 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 Santo Domingo for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Xi'an for

  • day trips
  • nature and the outdoors
  • getting around

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. Santo Domingo 58, Xi'an 4: Santo Domingo leads by 54 points.
Food & drink. Santo Domingo 58, Xi'an 70: Xi'an leads by 12 points.
Culture & sights. Santo Domingo 64, Xi'an 81: Xi'an leads by 17 points.
Nightlife. Santo Domingo 66, Xi'an 42: Santo Domingo leads by 24 points.
Nature & outdoors. Santo Domingo 36, Xi'an 62: Xi'an leads by 26 points.
Day trips. Santo Domingo 44, Xi'an 80: Xi'an leads by 36 points.
Good for families. Santo Domingo 40, Xi'an 48: Xi'an leads by 8 points.
Getting around. Santo Domingo 40, Xi'an 66: Xi'an leads by 26 points.
Shopping & style. Santo Domingo 44, Xi'an 50: Xi'an leads by 6 points.
Affordability. Santo Domingo 66, Xi'an 80: Xi'an leads by 14 points.
Live music & performing arts. Santo Domingo 46, Xi'an 40: Santo Domingo leads by 6 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Santo Domingo 22, Xi'an 40: Xi'an leads by 18 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Santo Domingo and Xi'an.

Your match

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

Santo Domingo
49match

Wins on beaches and nightlife with your weighting.

Xi'an
Best match
55match

Wins on day trips 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.

Santo Domingo in July

33 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
183 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
28 °Csea
13 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
Santo DomingoXi'an

Where the figures come from

Santo Domingo 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. Santo Domingo: 1991-2020 normals, Santo Domingo (6.4 km from centre). Xi'an: 1991-2020 normals, Xi'An (4.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSanto DomingoXi'an
Official languageSpanishPutonghua
CurrencyDominican Peso (DOP)Yuan Renminbi (CNY)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzACI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-4UTC+8
Emergency number911Police 110, ambulance 120, fire 119
Elevation14 m405 m
Main airportLas Américas International Airport (SDQ)28 km from centre40 non-stop destinationsXi'an Xianyang International Airport (XIY)26 km from centre178 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days6 days

By the numbers

MeasureSanto DomingoXi'an
City population2,201,94112,952,907
People per km²1,6911,283
Museums within 10 km109
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km12
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Santo Domingo 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). 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.