VacationSelector
The Massachusetts State House, Boston
BostonThe Massachusetts State House
The cathedral facade, Siena
SienaThe cathedral facade

Photos: Boston by Ajay Suresh, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Siena by Raimond Spekking, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Boston 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 Boston for

  • live music and the arts
  • families
  • beaches

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

Choose Siena for

  • wellness
  • prices
  • day trips

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. Boston 35, Siena 14: Boston leads by 21 points.
Food & drink. Boston 64, Siena 62: Boston leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Boston 72, Siena 78: Siena leads by 6 points.
Nightlife. Boston 47, Siena 27: Boston leads by 20 points.
Nature & outdoors. Boston 60, Siena 65: Siena leads by 5 points.
Day trips. Boston 72, Siena 94: Siena leads by 22 points.
Good for families. Boston 72, Siena 38: Boston leads by 34 points.
Getting around. Boston 70, Siena 60: Boston leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Boston 55, Siena 35: Boston leads by 20 points.
Affordability. Boston 18, Siena 42: Siena leads by 24 points.
Live music & performing arts. Boston 72, Siena 36: Boston leads by 36 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Boston 30, Siena 55: Siena leads by 25 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Boston and Siena.

Your match

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

Boston
Best match
56match

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

Siena
51match

Wins on wellness 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.

Boston in July

28 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
82 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Siena in July

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

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
BostonSiena

Where the figures come from

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. Boston: 1991-2020 normals, Boston Logan International (3.5 km from centre). Siena: 2006-2017 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Arezzo (45 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBostonSiena
Official language-Italian
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation43 m322 m
Main airportBoston Logan International Airport (BOS)4 km from centre144 non-stop destinationsFlorence Airport, Peretola (FLR)55 km from centre46 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureBostonSiena
City population675,64752,812
People per km²2,910446
Museums within 10 km5130
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km05
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Boston 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. 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. 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.

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.