VacationSelector
Painted colonial houses in the Pelourinho, Salvador
SalvadorPainted colonial houses in the Pelourinho
The cathedral facade, Siena
SienaThe cathedral facade

Photos: Salvador by Paul R. Burley, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Siena by Raimond Spekking, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Salvador 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 Salvador for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • prices

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

Choose Siena for

  • day trips
  • wellness
  • getting around

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. Salvador 84, Siena 14: Salvador leads by 70 points.
Food & drink. Salvador 66, Siena 62: Salvador leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. Salvador 74, Siena 78: Siena leads by 4 points.
Nightlife. Salvador 70, Siena 27: Salvador leads by 43 points.
Nature & outdoors. Salvador 52, Siena 65: Siena leads by 13 points.
Day trips. Salvador 56, Siena 94: Siena leads by 38 points.
Good for families. Salvador 42, Siena 38: Salvador leads by 4 points.
Getting around. Salvador 42, Siena 60: Siena leads by 18 points.
Shopping & style. Salvador 42, Siena 35: Salvador leads by 7 points.
Affordability. Salvador 70, Siena 42: Salvador leads by 28 points.
Live music & performing arts. Salvador 63, Siena 36: Salvador leads by 27 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Salvador 32, Siena 55: Siena leads by 23 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Salvador and Siena.

Your match

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

Salvador
Best match
58match

Wins on beaches and nightlife with your weighting.

Siena
51match

Wins on day trips 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.

Salvador in July

27 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
201 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
26 °Csea
11 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

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
SalvadorSiena

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. Salvador: 1991-2020 normals, Salvador (4.5 km from centre). Siena: 2006-2017 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Arezzo (45 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSalvadorSiena
Official languagePortugueseItalian
CurrencyBrazilian Real (BRL)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCN60 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-3UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 190, ambulance 192, fire 193112
Elevation8 m322 m
Main airportDeputado Luiz Eduardo Magalhães International Airport (SSA)20 km from centre31 non-stop destinationsFlorence Airport, Peretola (FLR)55 km from centre46 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureSalvadorSiena
City population2,417,67852,812
People per km²3,489446
Museums within 10 km4930
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km15
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 Salvador 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). 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.