VacationSelector
The red cable car above Wellington, Wellington
WellingtonThe red cable car above Wellington
The Bell Tower of Xi'an under a blue sky, Xi'an
Xi'anThe Bell Tower of Xi'an under a blue sky

Photos: Wellington by lumoplank, CC0; Xi'an by xiquinhosilva, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Wellington 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 Wellington for

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

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

Choose Xi'an for

  • prices
  • day trips
  • culture and sights

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. Wellington 33, Xi'an 4: Wellington leads by 29 points.
Food & drink. Wellington 62, Xi'an 70: Xi'an leads by 8 points.
Culture & sights. Wellington 44, Xi'an 81: Xi'an leads by 37 points.
Nightlife. Wellington 45, Xi'an 42: Wellington leads by 3 points.
Nature & outdoors. Wellington 78, Xi'an 62: Wellington leads by 16 points.
Day trips. Wellington 40, Xi'an 80: Xi'an leads by 40 points.
Good for families. Wellington 62, Xi'an 48: Wellington leads by 14 points.
Getting around. Wellington 68, Xi'an 66: Wellington leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Wellington 42, Xi'an 50: Xi'an leads by 8 points.
Affordability. Wellington 33, Xi'an 80: Xi'an leads by 47 points.
Live music & performing arts. Wellington 56, Xi'an 40: Wellington leads by 16 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Wellington 30, Xi'an 40: Xi'an leads by 10 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Wellington
49match

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

Xi'an
Best match
55match

Wins on prices and day trips with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Wellington in July

12 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
111 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
12 °Csea
10 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

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
WellingtonXi'an

Where the figures come from

Wellington's sunshine is measured 47 km from the centre, at Paraparaumu Aerodrome.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Wellington: 1961-1990 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Wellington Aerodrome Aws (5.3 km from centre). Xi'an: 1991-2020 normals, Xi'An (4.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureWellingtonXi'an
Official languageEnglish, New Zealand Sign Language, MāoriPutonghua
CurrencyNew Zealand Dollar (NZD)Yuan Renminbi (CNY)
SocketsI230 V, 50 HzACI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+12, UTC+13 in summerUTC+8
Emergency number111Police 110, ambulance 120, fire 119
Elevation0 m405 m
Main airportWellington International Airport (WLG)5 km from centre20 non-stop destinationsXi'an Xianyang International Airport (XIY)26 km from centre178 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days6 days

By the numbers

MeasureWellingtonXi'an
City population216,20012,952,907
People per km²4871,283
Museums within 10 km129
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone-

Where else could you go?

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