VacationSelector
La Concha beach and Monte Urgull, San Sebastian
San SebastianLa Concha beach and Monte Urgull
The cathedral facade, Siena
SienaThe cathedral facade

Photos: San Sebastian by Guérin Nicolas, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Siena by Raimond Spekking, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

San Sebastian 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 Sebastian for

  • beaches
  • families
  • food and drink

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

Choose Siena for

  • culture and sights
  • 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. San Sebastian 68, Siena 14: San Sebastian leads by 54 points.
Food & drink. San Sebastian 88, Siena 62: San Sebastian leads by 26 points.
Culture & sights. San Sebastian 52, Siena 78: Siena leads by 26 points.
Nightlife. San Sebastian 44, Siena 27: San Sebastian leads by 17 points.
Nature & outdoors. San Sebastian 72, Siena 65: San Sebastian leads by 7 points.
Day trips. San Sebastian 80, Siena 94: Siena leads by 14 points.
Good for families. San Sebastian 66, Siena 38: San Sebastian leads by 28 points.
Getting around. San Sebastian 80, Siena 60: San Sebastian leads by 20 points.
Shopping & style. San Sebastian 40, Siena 35: San Sebastian leads by 5 points.
Affordability. San Sebastian 32, Siena 42: Siena leads by 10 points.
Live music & performing arts. San Sebastian 45, Siena 36: San Sebastian leads by 9 points.
Wellness & relaxation. San Sebastian 50, Siena 55: Siena leads by 5 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: San Sebastian and Siena.

Your match

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

San Sebastian
Best match
60match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

Siena
51match

Wins on culture and sights 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 Sebastian in July

22 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
92 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
21 °Csea
15 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

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
San SebastianSiena

Where the figures come from

San Sebastian's station stands 252 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer than the figures say.

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 Sebastian: 1991-2020 normals, San Sebastian / Igueldo (6.1 km from centre). Siena: 2006-2017 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Arezzo (45 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSan SebastianSiena
Official languageSpanishItalian
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
Elevation6 m322 m
Main airportSan Sebastián Airport (EAS)16 km from centre11 non-stop destinationsFlorence Airport, Peretola (FLR)55 km from centre46 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureSan SebastianSiena
City population189,86652,812
People per km²3,118446
Museums within 10 km1430
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km35
Swim season, months above 21 °C2 months-

Where else could you go?

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