VacationSelector
The church of La Compania under a blue sky, Arequipa
ArequipaThe church of La Compania under a blue sky
The cathedral facade, Siena
SienaThe cathedral facade

Photos: Arequipa by DocSlyper, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Siena by Raimond Spekking, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Arequipa or Siena?

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 Arequipa for

  • prices
  • nightlife
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Siena for

  • day trips
  • wellness
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Siena’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. Arequipa 8, Siena 14: Siena leads by 6 points.
Food & drink. Arequipa 66, Siena 62: Arequipa leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. Arequipa 64, Siena 78: Siena leads by 14 points.
Nightlife. Arequipa 36, Siena 27: Arequipa leads by 9 points.
Nature & outdoors. Arequipa 74, Siena 65: Arequipa leads by 9 points.
Day trips. Arequipa 30, Siena 94: Siena leads by 64 points.
Good for families. Arequipa 35, Siena 38: Siena leads by 3 points.
Getting around. Arequipa 54, Siena 60: Siena leads by 6 points.
Shopping & style. Arequipa 44, Siena 35: Arequipa leads by 9 points.
Affordability. Arequipa 82, Siena 42: Arequipa leads by 40 points.
Live music & performing arts. Arequipa 27, Siena 36: Siena leads by 9 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Arequipa 34, Siena 55: Siena leads by 21 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Arequipa and Siena.

Your match

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

Arequipa
46match

Wins on prices and nightlife with your weighting.

Siena
Best match
51match

Wins on day trips and wellness with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Arequipa in July

21 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
11 hdaylight a day

Siena in July

31 °Cdaytime high
17 °Cnight-time low
27 mmrain in the month
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
ArequipaSiena

Where the figures come from

Arequipa's station stands 203 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer than the figures say.

Siena's temperatures are measured 45 km from the centre, at Arezzo.

Siena 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. Arequipa: 1991-2020 normals, Arequipa (9.2 km from centre). Siena: 2006-2017 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Arezzo (45 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureArequipaSiena
Official languageSpanish, Aymara, QuechuaItalian
CurrencySol (PEN)Euro (EUR)
SocketsABC220 V, 60 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number111 or 911112
Elevation2,335 m322 m
Main airportRodríguez Ballón International Airport (AQP)7 km from centre2 non-stop destinationsFlorence Airport, Peretola (FLR)55 km from centre46 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year17 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureArequipaSiena
City population1,008,29052,812
People per km²1,551446
Museums within 10 km330
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km15

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Arequipa or Siena 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). 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. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates.

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.