VacationSelector
The Fisherman's Bastion, Budapest
BudapestThe Fisherman's Bastion
The cathedral facade, Siena
SienaThe cathedral facade

Photos: Budapest by Perituss, CC0; Siena by Raimond Spekking, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Budapest 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 Budapest for

  • nightlife
  • wellness
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Siena for

  • day trips
  • nature and the outdoors

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. Budapest 25, Siena 14: Budapest leads by 11 points.
Food & drink. Budapest 63, Siena 62: Budapest leads by 1 points.
Culture & sights. Budapest 80, Siena 78: Budapest leads by 2 points.
Nightlife. Budapest 78, Siena 27: Budapest leads by 51 points.
Nature & outdoors. Budapest 58, Siena 65: Siena leads by 7 points.
Day trips. Budapest 68, Siena 94: Siena leads by 26 points.
Good for families. Budapest 62, Siena 38: Budapest leads by 24 points.
Getting around. Budapest 78, Siena 60: Budapest leads by 18 points.
Shopping & style. Budapest 55, Siena 35: Budapest leads by 20 points.
Affordability. Budapest 62, Siena 42: Budapest leads by 20 points.
Live music & performing arts. Budapest 76, Siena 36: Budapest leads by 40 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Budapest 98, Siena 55: Budapest leads by 43 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Budapest and Siena.

Your match

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

Budapest
Best match
67match

Wins on nightlife and wellness with your weighting.

Siena
51match

Wins on day trips and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Budapest in July

27 °Cdaytime high
17 °Cnight-time low
75 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
16 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
BudapestSiena

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. Budapest: 1991-2020 normals, Budapest Met Center (2.1 km from centre). Siena: 2006-2017 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Arezzo (45 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBudapestSiena
Official languageHungarianItalian
CurrencyForint (HUF)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation117 m322 m
Main airportBudapest Liszt Ferenc International Airport (BUD)18 km from centre157 non-stop destinationsFlorence Airport, Peretola (FLR)55 km from centre46 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureBudapestSiena
City population1,675,77752,812
People per km²3,191446
Museums within 10 km8130
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 Budapest 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). 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.