VacationSelector
A heritage tram before the Regent building, Christchurch
ChristchurchA heritage tram before the Regent building
The cathedral facade, Siena
SienaThe cathedral facade

Photos: Christchurch by Bernard Spragg. NZ, CC0; Siena by Raimond Spekking, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Christchurch 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 Christchurch for

  • families
  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Siena for

  • day trips
  • 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. Christchurch 38, Siena 14: Christchurch leads by 24 points.
Food & drink. Christchurch 45, Siena 62: Siena leads by 17 points.
Culture & sights. Christchurch 38, Siena 78: Siena leads by 40 points.
Nightlife. Christchurch 32, Siena 27: Christchurch leads by 5 points.
Nature & outdoors. Christchurch 84, Siena 65: Christchurch leads by 19 points.
Day trips. Christchurch 45, Siena 94: Siena leads by 49 points.
Good for families. Christchurch 66, Siena 38: Christchurch leads by 28 points.
Getting around. Christchurch 48, Siena 60: Siena leads by 12 points.
Shopping & style. Christchurch 32, Siena 35: Siena leads by 3 points.
Affordability. Christchurch 38, Siena 42: Siena leads by 4 points.
Live music & performing arts. Christchurch 38, Siena 36: Christchurch leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Christchurch 45, Siena 55: Siena leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Christchurch and Siena.

Your match

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

Christchurch
46match

Wins on families and beaches with your weighting.

Siena
Best match
51match

Wins on day trips 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.

Christchurch in July

11 °Cdaytime high
1 °Cnight-time low
68 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
10 °Csea
9 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
ChristchurchSiena

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. Christchurch: 1991-2020 normals, Christchurch (8.7 km from centre). Siena: 2006-2017 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Arezzo (45 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureChristchurchSiena
Official languageEnglish, New Zealand Sign Language, MāoriItalian
CurrencyNew Zealand Dollar (NZD)Euro (EUR)
SocketsI230 V, 50 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+12, UTC+13 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number111112
Elevation20 m322 m
Main airportChristchurch International Airport (CHC)10 km from centre28 non-stop destinationsFlorence Airport, Peretola (FLR)55 km from centre46 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureChristchurchSiena
City population383,20052,812
People per km²1,298446
Museums within 10 km1130
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 Christchurch 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.