VacationSelector
The pagoda at Kiyomizu-dera, Kyoto
KyotoThe pagoda at Kiyomizu-dera
The cathedral facade, Siena
SienaThe cathedral facade

Photos: Kyoto by Bert Mulder, Pexels License; Siena by Raimond Spekking, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Kyoto 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 Kyoto for

  • shopping
  • families
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Siena for

Siena does not lead in any category we score.

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. Kyoto 15, Siena 14: Kyoto leads by 1 points.
Food & drink. Kyoto 85, Siena 62: Kyoto leads by 23 points.
Culture & sights. Kyoto 96, Siena 78: Kyoto leads by 18 points.
Nightlife. Kyoto 35, Siena 27: Kyoto leads by 8 points.
Nature & outdoors. Kyoto 70, Siena 65: Kyoto leads by 5 points.
Day trips. Kyoto 96, Siena 94: Kyoto leads by 2 points.
Good for families. Kyoto 68, Siena 38: Kyoto leads by 30 points.
Getting around. Kyoto 72, Siena 60: Kyoto leads by 12 points.
Shopping & style. Kyoto 72, Siena 35: Kyoto leads by 37 points.
Affordability. Kyoto 50, Siena 42: Kyoto leads by 8 points.
Live music & performing arts. Kyoto 60, Siena 36: Kyoto leads by 24 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Kyoto 70, Siena 55: Kyoto leads by 15 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Kyoto and Siena.

Your match

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

Kyoto
Best match
66match

Wins on shopping and families with your weighting.

Siena
51match

Has no clear advantage with the weighting you have chosen.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Kyoto in July

31 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
225 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
14 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

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
KyotoSiena

Where the figures come from

Kyoto's sunshine is measured 43 km from the centre, at Osaka.

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. Kyoto: 1971-2000 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Kyoto (3.2 km from centre). Siena: 2006-2017 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Arezzo (45 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureKyotoSiena
Official languageJapaneseItalian
CurrencyYen (JPY)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the regionCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+9UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 110, fire 119112
Elevation51 m322 m
Main airportKansai International Airport (KIX)81 km from centre62 non-stop destinationsFlorence Airport, Peretola (FLR)55 km from centre46 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureKyotoSiena
City population1,463,72352,812
People per km²1,768446
Museums within 10 km7730
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km45
Swim season, months above 21 °C5 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Kyoto or Siena somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national 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.