VacationSelector
The city from Hallgrímskirkja, Reykjavik
ReykjavikThe city from Hallgrímskirkja
The cathedral facade, Siena
SienaThe cathedral facade

Photos: Reykjavik by Atlantic Ambience, Pexels License; Siena by Raimond Spekking, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Reykjavik 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 Reykjavik for

  • wellness
  • nature and the outdoors
  • nightlife

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

Choose Siena for

  • day trips
  • culture and sights
  • prices

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. Reykjavik 12, Siena 14: Siena leads by 2 points.
Food & drink. Reykjavik 42, Siena 62: Siena leads by 20 points.
Culture & sights. Reykjavik 25, Siena 78: Siena leads by 53 points.
Nightlife. Reykjavik 45, Siena 27: Reykjavik leads by 18 points.
Nature & outdoors. Reykjavik 92, Siena 65: Reykjavik leads by 27 points.
Day trips. Reykjavik 35, Siena 94: Siena leads by 59 points.
Good for families. Reykjavik 55, Siena 38: Reykjavik leads by 17 points.
Getting around. Reykjavik 55, Siena 60: Siena leads by 5 points.
Shopping & style. Reykjavik 25, Siena 35: Siena leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Reykjavik 6, Siena 42: Siena leads by 36 points.
Live music & performing arts. Reykjavik 45, Siena 36: Reykjavik leads by 9 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Reykjavik 88, Siena 55: Reykjavik leads by 33 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Reykjavik and Siena.

Your match

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

Reykjavik
44match

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

Siena
Best match
51match

Wins on day trips and culture and sights with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Reykjavik in July

15 °Cdaytime high
9 °Cnight-time low
50 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
11 °Csea
20 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
ReykjavikSiena

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. Reykjavik: 1991-2020 normals, Reykjavik (2.3 km from centre). Siena: 2006-2017 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Arezzo (45 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureReykjavikSiena
Official languageIcelandicItalian
CurrencyIceland Krona (ISK)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTCUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation8 m322 m
Main airportKeflavik International Airport (KEF)37 km from centre88 non-stop destinationsFlorence Airport, Peretola (FLR)55 km from centre46 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureReykjavikSiena
City population138,77252,812
People per km²569446
Museums within 10 km2330
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km15
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone-

Where else could you go?

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