VacationSelector
The red aerial tram nearing the top of Hidden Peak, Snowbird
SnowbirdThe red aerial tram nearing the top of Hidden Peak
The Bell Tower of Xi'an under a blue sky, Xi'an
Xi'anThe Bell Tower of Xi'an under a blue sky

Photos: Snowbird by VeggieGarden, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Xi'an by xiquinhosilva, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Snowbird 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 Snowbird for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • beaches

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

Choose Xi'an for

  • culture and sights
  • prices
  • food and drink

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. Snowbird 5, Xi'an 4: Snowbird leads by 1 points.
Food & drink. Snowbird 20, Xi'an 70: Xi'an leads by 50 points.
Culture & sights. Snowbird 5, Xi'an 81: Xi'an leads by 76 points.
Nightlife. Snowbird 9, Xi'an 42: Xi'an leads by 33 points.
Nature & outdoors. Snowbird 92, Xi'an 62: Snowbird leads by 30 points.
Day trips. Snowbird 47, Xi'an 80: Xi'an leads by 33 points.
Good for families. Snowbird 42, Xi'an 48: Xi'an leads by 6 points.
Getting around. Snowbird 40, Xi'an 66: Xi'an leads by 26 points.
Shopping & style. Snowbird 8, Xi'an 50: Xi'an leads by 42 points.
Affordability. Snowbird 15, Xi'an 80: Xi'an leads by 65 points.
Live music & performing arts. Snowbird 8, Xi'an 40: Xi'an leads by 32 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Snowbird and Xi'an are level on 40.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Snowbird and Xi'an.

Your match

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

Snowbird
28match

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

Xi'an
Best match
55match

Wins on culture and sights and prices with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Snowbird in July

22 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
27 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
15 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

-10°0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
SnowbirdXi'an

Where the figures come from

Snowbird has no weather station within reach, so its figures come from a gridded climate model rather than a measured record, and read a broad area rather than the city itself.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Snowbird: 1991-2020 normals, TerraClimate 4 km grid at the town, no weather station within 90 km. Xi'an: 1991-2020 normals, Xi'An (4.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSnowbirdXi'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
Elevation2,479 m405 m
Main airportSalt Lake City International Airport (SLC)36 km from centre108 non-stop destinationsXi'an Xianyang International Airport (XIY)26 km from centre178 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days6 days

By the numbers

MeasureSnowbirdXi'an
City population-12,952,907
People per km²-1,283
Museums within 10 km09
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 Snowbird or Xi'an somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national sources. Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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. Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. 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.