VacationSelector
The Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque, Muscat
MuscatThe Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque
The cathedral facade, Siena
SienaThe cathedral facade

Photos: Muscat by Alli Khalil, CC BY 4.0, cropped; Siena by Raimond Spekking, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Muscat 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 Muscat for

  • beaches
  • families
  • shopping

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

Choose Siena for

  • getting around
  • day trips
  • culture and sights

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. Muscat 72, Siena 14: Muscat leads by 58 points.
Food & drink. Muscat 44, Siena 62: Siena leads by 18 points.
Culture & sights. Muscat 55, Siena 78: Siena leads by 23 points.
Nightlife. Muscat 14, Siena 27: Siena leads by 13 points.
Nature & outdoors. Muscat 70, Siena 65: Muscat leads by 5 points.
Day trips. Muscat 62, Siena 94: Siena leads by 32 points.
Good for families. Muscat 52, Siena 38: Muscat leads by 14 points.
Getting around. Muscat 20, Siena 60: Siena leads by 40 points.
Shopping & style. Muscat 42, Siena 35: Muscat leads by 7 points.
Affordability. Muscat 45, Siena 42: Muscat leads by 3 points.
Live music & performing arts. Muscat 40, Siena 36: Muscat leads by 4 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Muscat and Siena are level on 55.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Muscat and Siena.

Your match

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

Muscat
48match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

Siena
Best match
51match

Wins on getting around 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.

Muscat in July

33 °Cdaytime high
30 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
31 °Csea
13 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
MuscatSiena

Where the figures come from

Muscat's sunshine is measured 32 km from the centre, at Seeb, International Airport.

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. Muscat: 1991-2020 normals, Qaboos Port (3.4 km from centre). Siena: 2006-2017 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Arezzo (45 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMuscatSiena
Official languageArabicItalian
CurrencyRial Omani (OMR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCG240 V, 50 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+4UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number968112
Elevation69 m322 m
Main airportMuscat International Airport (MCT)31 km from centre83 non-stop destinationsFlorence Airport, Peretola (FLR)55 km from centre46 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-13 days

By the numbers

MeasureMuscatSiena
City population1,421,40952,812
People per km²406446
Museums within 10 km1030
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km05
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Muscat 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). 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. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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.