VacationSelector
The cathedral facade, Siena
SienaThe cathedral facade
The Bell Tower of Xi'an under a blue sky, Xi'an
Xi'anThe Bell Tower of Xi'an under a blue sky

Photos: Siena by Raimond Spekking, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Xi'an by xiquinhosilva, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Siena or Xi'an?

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 Siena for

  • wellness
  • day trips
  • beaches

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

Choose Xi'an for

  • prices
  • nightlife
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Xi'an’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. Siena 14, Xi'an 4: Siena leads by 10 points.
Food & drink. Siena 62, Xi'an 70: Xi'an leads by 8 points.
Culture & sights. Siena 78, Xi'an 81: Xi'an leads by 3 points.
Nightlife. Siena 27, Xi'an 42: Xi'an leads by 15 points.
Nature & outdoors. Siena 65, Xi'an 62: Siena leads by 3 points.
Day trips. Siena 94, Xi'an 80: Siena leads by 14 points.
Good for families. Siena 38, Xi'an 48: Xi'an leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Siena 60, Xi'an 66: Xi'an leads by 6 points.
Shopping & style. Siena 35, Xi'an 50: Xi'an leads by 15 points.
Affordability. Siena 42, Xi'an 80: Xi'an leads by 38 points.
Live music & performing arts. Siena 36, Xi'an 40: Xi'an leads by 4 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Siena 55, Xi'an 40: Siena leads by 15 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Siena and Xi'an.

Your match

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

Siena
51match

Wins on wellness and day trips with your weighting.

Xi'an
Best match
55match

Wins on prices and nightlife with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Siena in July

31 °Cdaytime high
17 °Cnight-time low
27 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
15 hdaylight a day

Xi'an in July

33 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
96 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
SienaXi'an

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. Siena: 2006-2017 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Arezzo (45 km from centre). Xi'an: 1991-2020 normals, Xi'An (4.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSienaXi'an
Official languageItalianPutonghua
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Yuan Renminbi (CNY)
SocketsCFL230 V, 50 HzACI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+8
Emergency number112Police 110, ambulance 120, fire 119
Elevation322 m405 m
Main airportFlorence Airport, Peretola (FLR)55 km from centre46 non-stop destinationsXi'an Xianyang International Airport (XIY)26 km from centre178 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days6 days

By the numbers

MeasureSienaXi'an
City population52,81212,952,907
People per km²4461,283
Museums within 10 km309
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km52

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Siena or Xi'an 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. 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. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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.