VacationSelector
The Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier, Santa Monica
Santa MonicaThe Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier
The cathedral facade, Siena
SienaThe cathedral facade

Photos: Santa Monica by Domenico Convertini, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Siena by Raimond Spekking, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Santa Monica 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 Santa Monica for

  • beaches
  • families
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Santa Monica’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. Santa Monica 66, Siena 14: Santa Monica leads by 52 points.
Food & drink. Santa Monica 60, Siena 62: Siena leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Santa Monica 35, Siena 78: Siena leads by 43 points.
Nightlife. Santa Monica 38, Siena 27: Santa Monica leads by 11 points.
Nature & outdoors. Santa Monica 72, Siena 65: Santa Monica leads by 7 points.
Day trips. Santa Monica 64, Siena 94: Siena leads by 30 points.
Good for families. Santa Monica 70, Siena 38: Santa Monica leads by 32 points.
Getting around. Santa Monica 52, Siena 60: Siena leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. Santa Monica 56, Siena 35: Santa Monica leads by 21 points.
Affordability. Santa Monica 14, Siena 42: Siena leads by 28 points.
Live music & performing arts. Santa Monica 38, Siena 36: Santa Monica leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Santa Monica 45, Siena 55: Siena leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Santa Monica and Siena.

Your match

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

Too close to call, level with your weighting

Santa Monica
51match

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.

Santa Monica in July

24 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
20 °Csea
14 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
Santa MonicaSiena

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. Santa Monica: 1991-2020 normals, Los Angeles Airport (13.4 km from centre). Siena: 2006-2017 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Arezzo (45 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSanta MonicaSiena
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
Elevation32 m322 m
Main airportLos Angeles International Airport (LAX)11 km from centre177 non-stop destinationsFlorence Airport, Peretola (FLR)55 km from centre46 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureSanta MonicaSiena
City population93,07652,812
People per km²4,270446
Museums within 10 km1930
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km15
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Santa Monica 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.