VacationSelector
The Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco
San FranciscoThe Golden Gate Bridge
The cathedral facade, Siena
SienaThe cathedral facade

Photos: San Francisco by Elijah Cobb, Pexels License; Siena by Raimond Spekking, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

San Francisco 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 San Francisco for

  • live music and the arts
  • nightlife
  • families

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

Choose Siena for

  • prices
  • day trips
  • 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. San Francisco 25, Siena 14: San Francisco leads by 11 points.
Food & drink. San Francisco 82, Siena 62: San Francisco leads by 20 points.
Culture & sights. San Francisco 68, Siena 78: Siena leads by 10 points.
Nightlife. San Francisco 58, Siena 27: San Francisco leads by 31 points.
Nature & outdoors. San Francisco 80, Siena 65: San Francisco leads by 15 points.
Day trips. San Francisco 72, Siena 94: Siena leads by 22 points.
Good for families. San Francisco 66, Siena 38: San Francisco leads by 28 points.
Getting around. San Francisco 70, Siena 60: San Francisco leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. San Francisco 58, Siena 35: San Francisco leads by 23 points.
Affordability. San Francisco 14, Siena 42: Siena leads by 28 points.
Live music & performing arts. San Francisco 76, Siena 36: San Francisco leads by 40 points.
Wellness & relaxation. San Francisco 42, Siena 55: Siena leads by 13 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: San Francisco and Siena.

Your match

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

San Francisco
Best match
59match

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

Siena
51match

Wins on prices 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.

San Francisco in July

22 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
13 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Siena in July

31 °Cdaytime high
17 °Cnight-time low
27 mmrain in the month
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
San FranciscoSiena

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. San Francisco: 1981-2010 normals, Alameda Naval Air Station (9.1 km from centre). Siena: 2006-2017 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Arezzo (45 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSan FranciscoSiena
Official language-Italian
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-8, UTC-7 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation16 m322 m
Main airportSan Francisco International Airport (SFO)18 km from centre142 non-stop destinationsFlorence Airport, Peretola (FLR)55 km from centre46 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureSan FranciscoSiena
City population873,96552,812
People per km²1,455446
Museums within 10 km5130
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km05
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow San Francisco 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.