VacationSelector
The cathedral above the old town, Santiago de Compostela
Santiago de CompostelaThe cathedral above the old town
The cathedral facade, Siena
SienaThe cathedral facade

Photos: Santiago de Compostela by Luis Miguel Bugallo Sánchez (Lmbuga), CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Siena by Raimond Spekking, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Santiago de Compostela 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 Santiago de Compostela for

  • prices
  • beaches
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Santiago de Compostela’s own page.

Choose Siena for

  • day trips
  • wellness
  • culture and sights

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. Santiago de Compostela 32, Siena 14: Santiago de Compostela leads by 18 points.
Food & drink. Santiago de Compostela 68, Siena 62: Santiago de Compostela leads by 6 points.
Culture & sights. Santiago de Compostela 70, Siena 78: Siena leads by 8 points.
Nightlife. Santiago de Compostela 45, Siena 27: Santiago de Compostela leads by 18 points.
Nature & outdoors. Santiago de Compostela 62, Siena 65: Siena leads by 3 points.
Day trips. Santiago de Compostela 72, Siena 94: Siena leads by 22 points.
Good for families. Santiago de Compostela 42, Siena 38: Santiago de Compostela leads by 4 points.
Getting around. Santiago de Compostela 70, Siena 60: Santiago de Compostela leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Santiago de Compostela and Siena are level on 35.
Affordability. Santiago de Compostela 64, Siena 42: Santiago de Compostela leads by 22 points.
Live music & performing arts. Santiago de Compostela 40, Siena 36: Santiago de Compostela leads by 4 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Santiago de Compostela 42, Siena 55: Siena leads by 13 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Santiago de Compostela and Siena.

Your match

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

Santiago de Compostela
Best match
54match

Wins on prices and beaches with your weighting.

Siena
51match

Wins on day trips and wellness with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Santiago de Compostela in July

25 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
41 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
17 °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
Santiago de CompostelaSiena

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. Santiago de Compostela: 1991-2020 normals, Santiago / Labacolla (8.4 km from centre). Siena: 2006-2017 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Arezzo (45 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSantiago de CompostelaSiena
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
Elevation260 m322 m
Main airportSantiago-Rosalía de Castro Airport (SCQ)10 km from centre29 non-stop destinationsFlorence Airport, Peretola (FLR)55 km from centre46 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureSantiago de CompostelaSiena
City population100,96552,812
People per km²459446
Museums within 10 km630
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km25
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Santiago de Compostela 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.