VacationSelector
The cathedral and Great St. Martin on the Rhine, Cologne
CologneThe cathedral and Great St. Martin on the Rhine
The cathedral facade, Siena
SienaThe cathedral facade

Photos: Cologne by Jörg Braukmann, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Siena by Raimond Spekking, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Cologne 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 Cologne for

  • nightlife
  • families
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Cologne’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. Cologne and Siena are level on 14.
Food & drink. Cologne 52, Siena 62: Siena leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. Cologne 67, Siena 78: Siena leads by 11 points.
Nightlife. Cologne 66, Siena 27: Cologne leads by 39 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cologne 56, Siena 65: Siena leads by 9 points.
Day trips. Cologne 80, Siena 94: Siena leads by 14 points.
Good for families. Cologne 70, Siena 38: Cologne leads by 32 points.
Getting around. Cologne 74, Siena 60: Cologne leads by 14 points.
Shopping & style. Cologne 57, Siena 35: Cologne leads by 22 points.
Affordability. Cologne 46, Siena 42: Cologne leads by 4 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cologne 68, Siena 36: Cologne leads by 32 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cologne 50, Siena 55: Siena leads by 5 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cologne and Siena.

Your match

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

Cologne
Best match
58match

Wins on nightlife and families with your weighting.

Siena
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.

Cologne in July

25 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
81 mmrain in the month
7 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
CologneSiena

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. Cologne: 1991-2020 normals, Köln-Stammheim (5.4 km from centre). Siena: 2006-2017 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Arezzo (45 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCologneSiena
Official languageGermanItalian
CurrencyEuro (EUR)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
Elevation59 m322 m
Main airportCologne Bonn Airport (CGN)15 km from centre115 non-stop destinationsFlorence Airport, Peretola (FLR)55 km from centre46 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureCologneSiena
City population1,025,52352,812
People per km²2,532446
Museums within 10 km4030
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km35

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Cologne 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). 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. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates.

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.