VacationSelector
The old town below the fortress, Salzburg
SalzburgThe old town below the fortress
The cathedral facade, Siena
SienaThe cathedral facade

Photos: Salzburg by Leonhard Niederwimmer, Pexels License; Siena by Raimond Spekking, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Salzburg 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 Salzburg for

  • live music and the arts
  • families
  • beaches

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

Choose Siena for

  • food and drink
  • day trips
  • 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. Salzburg 35, Siena 14: Salzburg leads by 21 points.
Food & drink. Salzburg 45, Siena 62: Siena leads by 17 points.
Culture & sights. Salzburg 72, Siena 78: Siena leads by 6 points.
Nightlife. Salzburg 25, Siena 27: Siena leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Salzburg 86, Siena 65: Salzburg leads by 21 points.
Day trips. Salzburg 80, Siena 94: Siena leads by 14 points.
Good for families. Salzburg 65, Siena 38: Salzburg leads by 27 points.
Getting around. Salzburg 72, Siena 60: Salzburg leads by 12 points.
Shopping & style. Salzburg 48, Siena 35: Salzburg leads by 13 points.
Affordability. Salzburg 32, Siena 42: Siena leads by 10 points.
Live music & performing arts. Salzburg 80, Siena 36: Salzburg leads by 44 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Salzburg and Siena are level on 55.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Salzburg and Siena.

Your match

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

Salzburg
Best match
58match

Wins on live music and the arts and families with your weighting.

Siena
51match

Wins on food and drink 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.

Salzburg in July

25 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
159 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
16 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
SalzburgSiena

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

Before you go

MeasureSalzburgSiena
Official languageGerman, Austrian Sign LanguageItalian
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
Elevation424 m322 m
Main airportSalzburg Airport (SZG)3 km from centre64 non-stop destinationsFlorence Airport, Peretola (FLR)55 km from centre46 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureSalzburgSiena
City population155,02152,812
People per km²2,360446
Museums within 10 km3830
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km35

Where else could you go?

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