VacationSelector
The Royal Palace, Madrid
MadridThe Royal Palace
The cathedral facade, Siena
SienaThe cathedral facade

Photos: Madrid by Mert Ocak, Pexels License; Siena by Raimond Spekking, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Madrid 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 Madrid for

  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts
  • shopping

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

Choose Siena for

  • wellness
  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors

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. Madrid 5, Siena 14: Siena leads by 9 points.
Food & drink. Madrid 80, Siena 62: Madrid leads by 18 points.
Culture & sights. Madrid 86, Siena 78: Madrid leads by 8 points.
Nightlife. Madrid 85, Siena 27: Madrid leads by 58 points.
Nature & outdoors. Madrid 60, Siena 65: Siena leads by 5 points.
Day trips. Madrid 89, Siena 94: Siena leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Madrid 68, Siena 38: Madrid leads by 30 points.
Getting around. Madrid 84, Siena 60: Madrid leads by 24 points.
Shopping & style. Madrid 75, Siena 35: Madrid leads by 40 points.
Affordability. Madrid 50, Siena 42: Madrid leads by 8 points.
Live music & performing arts. Madrid 77, Siena 36: Madrid leads by 41 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Madrid 36, Siena 55: Siena leads by 19 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Madrid and Siena.

Your match

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

Madrid
Best match
66match

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

Siena
51match

Wins on wellness and beaches with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Madrid in July

33 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
9 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
15 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
MadridSiena

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. Madrid: 1991-2020 normals, Madrid (1.7 km from centre). Siena: 2006-2017 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Arezzo (45 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMadridSiena
Official languageSpanishItalian
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
Elevation663 m322 m
Main airportAdolfo Suárez Madrid–Barajas Airport (MAD)14 km from centre239 non-stop destinationsFlorence Airport, Peretola (FLR)55 km from centre46 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureMadridSiena
City population3,506,73052,812
People per km²5,801446
Museums within 10 km8830
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km45

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Madrid 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.