VacationSelector
The Winchester Mystery House, San Jose
San JoseThe Winchester Mystery House
The cathedral facade, Siena
SienaThe cathedral facade

Photos: San Jose by Roxanna Salceda, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Siena by Raimond Spekking, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

San Jose 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 Jose for

  • families
  • beaches
  • shopping

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

Choose Siena for

  • culture and sights
  • 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. San Jose 30, Siena 14: San Jose leads by 16 points.
Food & drink. San Jose 56, Siena 62: Siena leads by 6 points.
Culture & sights. San Jose 36, Siena 78: Siena leads by 42 points.
Nightlife. San Jose 33, Siena 27: San Jose leads by 6 points.
Nature & outdoors. San Jose 72, Siena 65: San Jose leads by 7 points.
Day trips. San Jose 78, Siena 94: Siena leads by 16 points.
Good for families. San Jose 65, Siena 38: San Jose leads by 27 points.
Getting around. San Jose 30, Siena 60: Siena leads by 30 points.
Shopping & style. San Jose 48, Siena 35: San Jose leads by 13 points.
Affordability. San Jose 20, Siena 42: Siena leads by 22 points.
Live music & performing arts. San Jose 38, Siena 36: San Jose leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. San Jose 30, Siena 55: Siena leads by 25 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: San Jose and Siena.

Your match

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

San Jose
45match

Wins on families and beaches with your weighting.

Siena
Best match
51match

Wins on culture and sights 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.

San Jose in July

27 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
14 °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 JoseSiena

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 Jose: 1991-2020 normals, San Jose / Santa Clara Trailer Village (8.2 km from centre). Siena: 2006-2017 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Arezzo (45 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSan JoseSiena
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
Elevation25 m322 m
Main airportMineta San Jose International Airport (SJC)8 km from centre38 non-stop destinationsFlorence Airport, Peretola (FLR)55 km from centre46 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureSan JoseSiena
City population1,013,24052,812
People per km²2,167446
Museums within 10 km1930
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 Jose 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.