VacationSelector
The Palais des Papes and the cathedral, Avignon
AvignonThe Palais des Papes and the cathedral
The cathedral facade, Siena
SienaThe cathedral facade

Photos: Avignon by BlueBreezeWiki, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Siena by Raimond Spekking, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Avignon 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 Avignon for

  • live music and the arts
  • beaches
  • families

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

Choose Siena for

  • wellness
  • culture and sights
  • food and drink

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. Avignon 22, Siena 14: Avignon leads by 8 points.
Food & drink. Avignon 57, Siena 62: Siena leads by 5 points.
Culture & sights. Avignon 69, Siena 78: Siena leads by 9 points.
Nightlife. Avignon 30, Siena 27: Avignon leads by 3 points.
Nature & outdoors. Avignon 70, Siena 65: Avignon leads by 5 points.
Day trips. Avignon 92, Siena 94: Siena leads by 2 points.
Good for families. Avignon 45, Siena 38: Avignon leads by 7 points.
Getting around. Avignon 62, Siena 60: Avignon leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Avignon 38, Siena 35: Avignon leads by 3 points.
Affordability. Avignon 44, Siena 42: Avignon leads by 2 points.
Live music & performing arts. Avignon 68, Siena 36: Avignon leads by 32 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Avignon 35, Siena 55: Siena leads by 20 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Avignon and Siena.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Avignon
53match

Wins on live music and the arts and beaches with your weighting.

Siena
51match

Wins on wellness 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.

Avignon in July

32 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
24 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
15 hdaylight a day

Siena in July

31 °Cdaytime high
17 °Cnight-time low
27 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
AvignonSiena

Where the figures come from

Avignon 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.

Avignon's sunshine is measured 65 km from the centre, at Marseille / Marignane.

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. Avignon: 2005-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Avignon / Morières-lès-Avignon (8.6 km from centre). Siena: 2006-2017 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Arezzo (45 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAvignonSiena
Official languageFrenchItalian
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCE230 V, 50 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation10 m322 m
Main airportMarseille Provence Airport (MRS)65 km from centre126 non-stop destinationsFlorence Airport, Peretola (FLR)55 km from centre46 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureAvignonSiena
City population92,18852,812
People per km²1,420446
Museums within 10 km1130
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km65

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Avignon 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). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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. 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.