Siena or Split?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Wins on museums & heritage and sights concentration with your weighting.
Wins on beaches & swimming and nightlife with your weighting.
What matters to you?
Pick a travel style or drag the sliders. The match scores above update as you do.
The verdict
Choose Siena if you are going for museums, UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach and a centre where the notable sights sit close together, and if you are content with a trip that has no swimming in it.
Choose Split if you want the sea: 87 beaches nearby, four months warm enough to swim, and considerably more places to drink after dark.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Split leads by 73 points.73
| Siena | Split | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 0 | 73 |
| Swim season months | 0 | 4 |
| Beaches 10 km | 0 | 87 |
| Coast distance | 64 km | 0 km |
| Water distance | — | 0 km |
Places to eat. Split leads by 6 points.6
| Siena | Split | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 32 | 38 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 242 | 268 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 11 | 15 |
Museums & heritage. Siena leads by 19 points.19
| Siena | Split | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 71 | 52 |
| Museums within 10 km | 55 | 18 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 51 | 16 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 93 | 89 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 5 | 4 |
Nightlife. Split leads by 24 points.24
| Siena | Split | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 17 | 41 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 142 | 379 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 119 | 263 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 84 | 69 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 1 | 23 |
Nature & day trips. Split leads by 19 points.19
| Siena | Split | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 19 | 38 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 3 | 9 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 0 | 0 |
| Land share of disc % | 100 | 62 |
| Park area within 2 km | 29 hectares | 30 hectares |
Good for families. Siena leads by 5 points.5
| Siena | Split | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 31 | 26 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 13 | 9 |
| Park area within 2 km | 29 hectares | 30 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 0 | 0 |
Sights concentration. Siena leads by 8 points.8
| Siena | Split | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 50 | 42 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 69 | 43 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Split leads by 12 points.12
| Siena | Split | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 68 | 80 |
| Price level global | 64.9 | 48.5 |
| Daily budget | €155 | €138 |
Year-round weather. Split leads by 5 points.5
| Siena | Split | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 64 | 69 |
| Monthly daytime high | 8.9 °C to 31.3 °C | 10.7 °C to 31 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 49 mm to 136 mm | 25 mm to 117 mm |
| Dry months | 0 | 2 |
Where they differ
Siena is the stronger choice for heritage: roughly three times as many museums as Split, 5 UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach against 4, and about twice as many notable places within walking distance of the centre.
Split has 87 beaches nearby where Siena has none, and the sea stays at 21°C or more for four months, warmest in August. It also has about three times as many places to drink, plus many more nightclubs, most near the centre, and more protected land around it, 9% against 3%.
Where they are alike
Neither is set up for families in an obvious way: there is no theme park within reach of either, and park space near the two centres is much the same, with Siena holding somewhat more tourist attractions close in.
Both peak at the same summer heat, 31°C in July, and differ little in winter, 9°C in Siena against 11°C in Split. For eating, the number of restaurants near the centre is similar, though Split's kitchens cover a wider range.
Which traveller are you?
Someone who wants museums and a walkable old centre should take Siena: about three times the museum count of Split, more notable places within walking distance, and 5 UNESCO-listed sites within day-trip reach.
Anyone whose holiday centres on swimming and evenings out belongs in Split: 87 beaches nearby, sea above 21°C for four months, and far more bars and clubs, most of them close to the centre.
Families are less clearly served either way. Neither has a theme park within reach and park space near the centres is similar; Split adds the water, Siena the greater number of attractions close to the centre.
What the numbers don't tell you
The daily budget figures, €155 for Italy and €138 for Croatia, are national estimates of restaurant and hotel price levels, not measurements of Siena or Split. A heavily visited city can sit well away from its own country's average, by more than the gap between these two figures, so neither number tells you what either place will cost.
No sunshine figure exists for Siena, so its monthly ratings rest on temperature and rainfall alone and that side of the weather comparison is unmeasured. Split's beach count says nothing about how busy those beaches are when the sea is at its warmest.
When should you go?
The figures behind each month. Each row is shaded against that destination's own year, so the deepest cell is its best month for that measure and the palest its weakest. Shades are not comparable between the two rows.
Temperature and rainfall are thirty-year climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Siena: 2006-2017 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Arezzo (45 km from centre). Split: 1991-2020 normals, Split / Marjan (0.9 km from centre).
Siena's best stretch is May and June, with highs of 23-28°C. Its driest weeks come in July and August, 49-53mm, though days reach 31°C. September is still warm at 26°C but rain returns at 103mm, and late autumn is wetter still.
Split holds a longer warm season, running into September, with the sea at 22-25°C and its driest months, July and August, at 25-32mm. Winter stays mild rather than warm, highs of 11-12°C, and November brings 117mm.
Getting there
| Flying from | Siena | Split |
|---|---|---|
| LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2 | 2 h 5 m €180-199 1 stop FLR · 55 km | 2 h 30 m €88-160 SPU · 12 km |
| ParisCDG, ORY, BVA | 1 h 40 m €143-159 FLR · 55 km | 2 h 5 m €169-225 SPU · 12 km |
| AmsterdamAMS | 1 h 55 m €232-255 2 stops FLR · 55 km | 2 h 10 m €186-201 1 stop SPU · 12 km |
| RomeFCO, CIA | 55 m €136-139 1 stop FLR · 55 km | 1 h 5 m €294 SPU · 12 km |
| FrankfurtFRA, HHN | 1 h 30 m no fares FLR · 55 km | 1 h 45 m €169-224 SPU · 12 km |
| MunichMUC | 1 h 15 m no fares FLR · 55 km | 1 h 25 m no fares SPU · 12 km |
| ViennaVIE | 1 h 25 m €185-255 1 stop FLR · 55 km | 1 h 15 m €233-281 SPU · 12 km |
| BarcelonaBCN | 1 h 35 m €113-168 FLR · 55 km | 2 h 5 m €108-177 SPU · 12 km |
| ZurichZRH | 1 h 10 m no fares FLR · 55 km | 1 h 35 m €247-298 1 stop SPU · 12 km |
| MadridMAD | 2 h 10 m no fares FLR · 55 km | 2 h 40 m no fares SPU · 12 km |
The busiest departure cities for these two, with a place kept for each other part of the world. Busiest means arriving passengers where an official count exists, and where none does, the number of non-stop services flown: official route statistics are published by the European reporting countries and by nobody else, so a table ranked on them alone would offer a reader in New York or Tokyo ten European cities. Flying times are estimated from the distance between airports, and every row is a city flown non-stop to both. Where the typical offer connects anyway, the stops are shown. Under each figure is the airport the flight lands at and how far that is from the centre, because the nearest airport is not always the one a route is flown to. Where both columns name the same airport it is one flight, and the difference between the two is the distance printed beside it. Typical return fares for 2026-09 to 2026-10, cached market data up to 7 days old. The figure is the middle half of the offers found, so a single price means they agreed and a range means they did not; for a typical route that middle half spans about a quarter of the median, and for the least settled routes rather more than the median itself.
Before you go
| Measure | Siena | Split |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | Italian | Croatian |
| Currency | Euro (EUR) | Euro (EUR) |
| Sockets | CFL230 V, 50 Hz | CF230 V, 50 Hz |
| Driving side | Right | Right |
| Time zone | UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer | UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer |
| Emergency number | 112 | 112 |
| Elevation | 322 m | 0 m |
| Main airport | Florence Airport, Peretola (FLR)55 km from centre36 non-stop destinations | Split Saint Jerome Airport (SPU)12 km from centre70 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 13 days | 14 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Siena | Split |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 52,812 | 160,577 |
| People per km² | 446 | – |
| Museums within 10 km | 29 | 11 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 5 | 4 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 25 | 31 |
| Swim season, months above 21 °C | – | 4 months |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Siena or Split somewhere new.