VacationSelector
Wat Chiang Man in the old city, Chiang Mai
Chiang MaiWat Chiang Man in the old city
The cathedral facade, Siena
SienaThe cathedral facade

Photos: Chiang Mai by Gije Cho, Pexels License; Siena by Raimond Spekking, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Chiang Mai 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 Chiang Mai for

  • prices
  • shopping
  • wellness

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

Choose Siena for

  • day trips
  • getting around
  • 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. Chiang Mai 6, Siena 14: Siena leads by 8 points.
Food & drink. Chiang Mai 78, Siena 62: Chiang Mai leads by 16 points.
Culture & sights. Chiang Mai 65, Siena 78: Siena leads by 13 points.
Nightlife. Chiang Mai 45, Siena 27: Chiang Mai leads by 18 points.
Nature & outdoors. Chiang Mai 73, Siena 65: Chiang Mai leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Chiang Mai 48, Siena 94: Siena leads by 46 points.
Good for families. Chiang Mai 55, Siena 38: Chiang Mai leads by 17 points.
Getting around. Chiang Mai 38, Siena 60: Siena leads by 22 points.
Shopping & style. Chiang Mai 62, Siena 35: Chiang Mai leads by 27 points.
Affordability. Chiang Mai 90, Siena 42: Chiang Mai leads by 48 points.
Live music & performing arts. Chiang Mai 30, Siena 36: Siena leads by 6 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Chiang Mai 82, Siena 55: Chiang Mai leads by 27 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Chiang Mai and Siena.

Your match

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

Chiang Mai
Best match
56match

Wins on prices and shopping with your weighting.

Siena
51match

Wins on day trips and getting around with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Chiang Mai in July

32 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
153 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
13 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

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Chiang MaiSiena

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. Chiang Mai: 1991-2020 normals, Chiang Mai (0.6 km from centre). Siena: 2006-2017 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Arezzo (45 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureChiang MaiSiena
Official languageThaiItalian
CurrencyBaht (THB)Euro (EUR)
SocketsABCF220 V, 50 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+7UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199112
Elevation310 m322 m
Main airportChiang Mai International Airport (CNX)3 km from centre28 non-stop destinationsFlorence Airport, Peretola (FLR)55 km from centre46 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-13 days

By the numbers

MeasureChiang MaiSiena
City population1,198,00052,812
People per km²2,958446
Museums within 10 km630
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km05

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Chiang Mai 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). 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. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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.