VacationSelector
The Scott Monument and Princes Street Gardens, Edinburgh
EdinburghThe Scott Monument and Princes Street Gardens
The cathedral facade, Siena
SienaThe cathedral facade

Photos: Edinburgh by Carlos Delgado, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Siena by Raimond Spekking, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Edinburgh 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 Edinburgh for

  • live music and the arts
  • families
  • nightlife

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

Choose Siena for

  • wellness
  • day trips
  • prices

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. Edinburgh 22, Siena 14: Edinburgh leads by 8 points.
Food & drink. Edinburgh 53, Siena 62: Siena leads by 9 points.
Culture & sights. Edinburgh 75, Siena 78: Siena leads by 3 points.
Nightlife. Edinburgh 50, Siena 27: Edinburgh leads by 23 points.
Nature & outdoors. Edinburgh 75, Siena 65: Edinburgh leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Edinburgh 75, Siena 94: Siena leads by 19 points.
Good for families. Edinburgh 62, Siena 38: Edinburgh leads by 24 points.
Getting around. Edinburgh 74, Siena 60: Edinburgh leads by 14 points.
Shopping & style. Edinburgh 50, Siena 35: Edinburgh leads by 15 points.
Affordability. Edinburgh 30, Siena 42: Siena leads by 12 points.
Live music & performing arts. Edinburgh 72, Siena 36: Edinburgh leads by 36 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Edinburgh 34, Siena 55: Siena leads by 21 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Edinburgh and Siena.

Your match

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

Edinburgh
Best match
56match

Wins on live music and the arts and families with your weighting.

Siena
51match

Wins on wellness and day trips with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Edinburgh in July

19 °Cdaytime high
11 °Cnight-time low
66 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
14 °Csea
17 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
EdinburghSiena

Where the figures come from

Edinburgh 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.

Edinburgh's sunshine is measured 52 km from the centre, at Leuchars.

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. Edinburgh: 1991-2020 normals, Edinburgh Airport (10 km from centre). Siena: 2006-2017 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Arezzo (45 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEdinburghSiena
Official languageEnglishItalian
CurrencyPound Sterling (GBP)Euro (EUR)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112 or 999112
Elevation47 m322 m
Main airportEdinburgh Airport (EDI)11 km from centre163 non-stop destinationsFlorence Airport, Peretola (FLR)55 km from centre46 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureEdinburghSiena
City population488,05052,812
People per km²1,884446
Museums within 10 km3230
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km35
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone-

Where else could you go?

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