VacationSelector
The cathedral from the gardens, Malaga
MalagaThe cathedral from the gardens
The cathedral facade, Siena
SienaThe cathedral facade

Photos: Malaga by Holger Uwe Schmitt, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Siena by Raimond Spekking, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Malaga 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 Malaga for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • families

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

Choose Siena for

  • culture and sights
  • wellness
  • day trips

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. Malaga 77, Siena 14: Malaga leads by 63 points.
Food & drink. Malaga 68, Siena 62: Malaga leads by 6 points.
Culture & sights. Malaga 65, Siena 78: Siena leads by 13 points.
Nightlife. Malaga 62, Siena 27: Malaga leads by 35 points.
Nature & outdoors. Malaga 73, Siena 65: Malaga leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Malaga 87, Siena 94: Siena leads by 7 points.
Good for families. Malaga 70, Siena 38: Malaga leads by 32 points.
Getting around. Malaga 70, Siena 60: Malaga leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Malaga 55, Siena 35: Malaga leads by 20 points.
Affordability. Malaga 55, Siena 42: Malaga leads by 13 points.
Live music & performing arts. Malaga 45, Siena 36: Malaga leads by 9 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Malaga 42, Siena 55: Siena leads by 13 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Malaga and Siena.

Your match

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

Malaga
Best match
64match

Wins on beaches and nightlife with your weighting.

Siena
51match

Wins on culture and sights and wellness with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Malaga in July

31 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
22 °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

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
MalagaSiena

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. Malaga: 1991-2020 normals, Malaga / Aeropuerto (8.2 km from centre). Siena: 2006-2017 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Arezzo (45 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMalagaSiena
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
Elevation18 m322 m
Main airportMálaga-Costa del Sol Airport (AGP)8 km from centre166 non-stop destinationsFlorence Airport, Peretola (FLR)55 km from centre46 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureMalagaSiena
City population599,06352,812
People per km²1,517446
Museums within 10 km3230
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km15
Swim season, months above 21 °C3 months-

Where else could you go?

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