San Gimignano Travel Forum

I'm a little confused. At first I was going to spend 1 night in San Gimignano & 2 nights in Siena. But many are saying San Gimignano is more beautiful. And others are saying there is more to see in Siena.

Does anyone have any advice on which place I should spend more time? What is your personal preference and Why?

(note - I have also asked this on the Siena Forum)

Why don't you go for one night in the first town then think bout if you wanna stay on another night or move on. I did both town in one day.

if you have a car,no problem at all!
spend the nights (exc.WE) in wonderful and quiet san gimignano....and your day in siena (30min.driving)!
in san gimi:hotel la cisterna,or 2km from city center:h.pescille...among a lot of good ones!

I don't have a car, otherwise I would stay in the country side and drive around. And because July is so busy I have been told to book my accommodation in advance. So I am trying to work out where to stay and for how long etc-

I will check out the places you recommended and see if there are regular buses out there.

Thank you both for responding =)

If you don't have a car...spend more time in Siena.
We rented a car and stayed in a little house in SAN GIm. Visited Siena , florence lucca pisa from there.
But SG is very small. Nice but small.

this should be a no-brainer. siena is one of the great cities of the renaissance and modern europe with the palio, cathedral, art, and sophisticated (relatively) shopping. san g is a monument to tourist greed with a chain store on the first level of every building, benetton on every corner, and no true culture. the towers are best appreciated on the road into town about 4 kms east.

I totally agree with nicolaitan; Siena is much nicer; in my opinion San Giminianno is a little bit overrated (I was disappointed).

Siena is lovely and much bigger. I preferred Volterra to San Giminiano.

I absolutley loved Siena, at first we stayed for 3 nights with a day trip to San Gimigano, which was enough, and we then decided to return to Siena for another three nights at the end of our trip as we loved it so so much. It is quaint, not too touristy, beautiful scenery, like a little old tucked away town. San Gimigano was great also, you must do a walk around outside of the walled city for the beautiul scenery. i could not have stayed here though as it was not as good as Siena, in my opinion. Although they were both absolutley fantasics, if I had the choice i would stay in Siena!

thank you so much guys!!

i will definitely make some extra time for Siena.

Thankyou again for making it easier for me =)