VacationSelector
The cathedral facade, Siena
SienaThe cathedral facade
York Minster from the city walls, York
YorkYork Minster from the city walls

Photos: Siena by Raimond Spekking, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; York by PAUL FARMER, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Siena or York?

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
  • food and drink
  • day trips

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

Choose York for

  • families
  • getting around
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on York’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 and York are level on 14.
Food & drink. Siena 62, York 42: Siena leads by 20 points.
Culture & sights. Siena 78, York 70: Siena leads by 8 points.
Nightlife. Siena 27, York 36: York leads by 9 points.
Nature & outdoors. Siena 65, York 62: Siena leads by 3 points.
Day trips. Siena 94, York 80: Siena leads by 14 points.
Good for families. Siena 38, York 60: York leads by 22 points.
Getting around. Siena 60, York 72: York leads by 12 points.
Shopping & style. Siena 35, York 46: York leads by 11 points.
Affordability. Siena 42, York 38: Siena leads by 4 points.
Live music & performing arts. Siena 36, York 38: York leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Siena 55, York 34: Siena leads by 21 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Siena and York.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Siena
51match

Wins on wellness and food and drink with your weighting.

York
49match

Wins on families and getting around 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

York in July

21 °Cdaytime high
12 °Cnight-time low
62 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
17 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
SienaYork

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.

York 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.

York's sunshine is measured 48 km from the centre, at Leeming.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Siena: 2006-2017 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Arezzo (45 km from centre). York: 1991-2020 normals, Linton-On-Ouse (14.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSienaYork
Official languageItalianEnglish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Pound Sterling (GBP)
SocketsCFL230 V, 50 HzG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC, UTC+1 in summer
Emergency number112112 or 999
Elevation322 m25 m
Main airportFlorence Airport, Peretola (FLR)55 km from centre46 non-stop destinationsLeeds Bradford Airport (LBA)39 km from centre69 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days8 days

By the numbers

MeasureSienaYork
City population52,812208,400
People per km²446766
Museums within 10 km3024
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 York 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.