VacationSelector
The church of San Francisco under a blue sky, Quito
QuitoThe church of San Francisco under a blue sky
The cathedral facade, Siena
SienaThe cathedral facade

Photos: Quito by Bernard Gagnon, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Siena by Raimond Spekking, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Quito 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 Quito for

  • prices
  • nature and the outdoors
  • nightlife

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

Choose Siena for

  • day trips
  • getting around
  • wellness

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. Quito 5, Siena 14: Siena leads by 9 points.
Food & drink. Quito 54, Siena 62: Siena leads by 8 points.
Culture & sights. Quito 77, Siena 78: Siena leads by 1 points.
Nightlife. Quito 40, Siena 27: Quito leads by 13 points.
Nature & outdoors. Quito 86, Siena 65: Quito leads by 21 points.
Day trips. Quito 55, Siena 94: Siena leads by 39 points.
Good for families. Quito 32, Siena 38: Siena leads by 6 points.
Getting around. Quito 45, Siena 60: Siena leads by 15 points.
Shopping & style. Quito 40, Siena 35: Quito leads by 5 points.
Affordability. Quito 78, Siena 42: Quito leads by 36 points.
Live music & performing arts. Quito 38, Siena 36: Quito leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Quito 44, Siena 55: Siena leads by 11 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Quito and Siena.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Quito
50match

Wins on prices and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Siena
51match

Wins on day trips and getting around with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Quito in July

18 °Cdaytime high
5 °Cnight-time low
32 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
12 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

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
QuitoSiena

Where the figures come from

Quito's station stands 208 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer than the figures say.

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. Quito: 1961-1990 normals, Izobamba-Santa Catalina (16.8 km from centre). Siena: 2006-2017 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Arezzo (45 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureQuitoSiena
Official languageSpanish, Shuar, Northern QuichuaItalian
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation2,850 m322 m
Main airportMariscal Sucre International Airport (UIO)20 km from centre22 non-stop destinationsFlorence Airport, Peretola (FLR)55 km from centre46 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureQuitoSiena
City population1,763,27552,812
People per km²4,735446
Museums within 10 km1630
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km25

Where else could you go?

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