VacationSelector
The pastel houses of Rainbow Row, Charleston
CharlestonThe pastel houses of Rainbow Row
The cathedral facade, Siena
SienaThe cathedral facade

Photos: Charleston by NealVickers, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Siena by Raimond Spekking, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Charleston 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 Charleston for

  • beaches
  • families
  • shopping

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

Choose Siena for

  • day trips
  • prices
  • wellness

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. Charleston 72, Siena 14: Charleston leads by 58 points.
Food & drink. Charleston 72, Siena 62: Charleston leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. Charleston 64, Siena 78: Siena leads by 14 points.
Nightlife. Charleston 44, Siena 27: Charleston leads by 17 points.
Nature & outdoors. Charleston 55, Siena 65: Siena leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Charleston 62, Siena 94: Siena leads by 32 points.
Good for families. Charleston 60, Siena 38: Charleston leads by 22 points.
Getting around. Charleston 46, Siena 60: Siena leads by 14 points.
Shopping & style. Charleston 55, Siena 35: Charleston leads by 20 points.
Affordability. Charleston 27, Siena 42: Siena leads by 15 points.
Live music & performing arts. Charleston 42, Siena 36: Charleston leads by 6 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Charleston 40, Siena 55: Siena leads by 15 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Charleston 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

Charleston
53match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

Siena
51match

Wins on day trips 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.

Charleston in July

33 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
167 mmrain in the month
28 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Siena in July

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

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
CharlestonSiena

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. Charleston: 1991-2020 normals, Charleston Airport (16.1 km from centre). Siena: 2006-2017 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Arezzo (45 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCharlestonSiena
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
Elevation6 m322 m
Main airportCharleston International Airport (CHS)16 km from centre56 non-stop destinationsFlorence Airport, Peretola (FLR)55 km from centre46 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureCharlestonSiena
City population150,22752,812
People per km²532446
Museums within 10 km1930
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km05
Swim season, months above 21 °C6 months-

Where else could you go?

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