VacationSelector
Hanok houses in Bukchon, Seoul
SeoulHanok houses in Bukchon
The cathedral facade, Siena
SienaThe cathedral facade

Photos: Seoul by 거열 박, Pexels License; Siena by Raimond Spekking, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Seoul 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 Seoul for

  • nightlife
  • shopping
  • families

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

Choose Siena for

  • day trips
  • 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. Seoul 18, Siena 14: Seoul leads by 4 points.
Food & drink. Seoul 84, Siena 62: Seoul leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. Seoul 75, Siena 78: Siena leads by 3 points.
Nightlife. Seoul 84, Siena 27: Seoul leads by 57 points.
Nature & outdoors. Seoul 75, Siena 65: Seoul leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Seoul 77, Siena 94: Siena leads by 17 points.
Good for families. Seoul 80, Siena 38: Seoul leads by 42 points.
Getting around. Seoul 87, Siena 60: Seoul leads by 27 points.
Shopping & style. Seoul 85, Siena 35: Seoul leads by 50 points.
Affordability. Seoul 50, Siena 42: Seoul leads by 8 points.
Live music & performing arts. Seoul 63, Siena 36: Seoul leads by 27 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Seoul 75, Siena 55: Seoul leads by 20 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Seoul and Siena.

Your match

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

Seoul
Best match
71match

Wins on nightlife and shopping with your weighting.

Siena
51match

Wins on day trips and culture and sights with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Seoul in July

29 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
422 mmrain in the month
4 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

0100200300400500JFMAMJJASOND
SeoulSiena

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. Seoul: 1991-2020 normals, Seoul (2.2 km from centre). Siena: 2006-2017 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Arezzo (45 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSeoulSiena
Official languageKorean, Korean Sign LanguageItalian
CurrencyWon (KRW)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCF220 V, 60 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+9UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 112, ambulance 119, fire 119112
Elevation38 m322 m
Main airportIncheon International Airport (ICN)49 km from centre162 non-stop destinationsFlorence Airport, Peretola (FLR)55 km from centre46 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year18 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureSeoulSiena
City population9,668,46552,812
People per km²15,973446
Museums within 10 km8130
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km55
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 Seoul 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.