VacationSelector
The church of La Compania under a blue sky, Arequipa
ArequipaThe church of La Compania under a blue sky
Fishing boats in the harbour, La Spezia
La SpeziaFishing boats in the harbour

Photos: Arequipa by DocSlyper, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; La Spezia by Irina Balashova, Pexels License.

Arequipa or La Spezia?

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 Arequipa for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • shopping

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

Choose La Spezia for

  • day trips
  • beaches
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on La Spezia’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. Arequipa 8, La Spezia 60: La Spezia leads by 52 points.
Food & drink. Arequipa 66, La Spezia 58: Arequipa leads by 8 points.
Culture & sights. Arequipa 64, La Spezia 40: Arequipa leads by 24 points.
Nightlife. Arequipa 36, La Spezia 28: Arequipa leads by 8 points.
Nature & outdoors. Arequipa 74, La Spezia 79: La Spezia leads by 5 points.
Day trips. Arequipa 30, La Spezia 87: La Spezia leads by 57 points.
Good for families. Arequipa 35, La Spezia 48: La Spezia leads by 13 points.
Getting around. Arequipa 54, La Spezia 70: La Spezia leads by 16 points.
Shopping & style. Arequipa 44, La Spezia 35: Arequipa leads by 9 points.
Affordability. Arequipa 82, La Spezia 50: Arequipa leads by 32 points.
Live music & performing arts. Arequipa 27, La Spezia 28: La Spezia leads by 1 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Arequipa 34, La Spezia 32: Arequipa leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Arequipa and La Spezia.

Your match

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

Arequipa
46match

Wins on prices and culture and sights with your weighting.

La Spezia
Best match
51match

Wins on day trips and beaches with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Arequipa in July

21 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
11 hdaylight a day

La Spezia in July

30 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
20 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
24 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
ArequipaLa Spezia

Where the figures come from

Arequipa's station stands 203 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer than the figures say.

La Spezia's temperatures are measured 65 km from the centre, at Pisa / S. Giusto.

La Spezia 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. Arequipa: 1991-2020 normals, Arequipa (9.2 km from centre). La Spezia: 1991-2020 normals, Pisa / S. Giusto (64.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureArequipaLa Spezia
Official languageSpanish, Aymara, QuechuaItalian
CurrencySol (PEN)Euro (EUR)
SocketsABC220 V, 60 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number111 or 911112
Elevation2,335 m3 m
Main airportRodríguez Ballón International Airport (AQP)7 km from centre2 non-stop destinationsPisa International Airport (PSA)65 km from centre82 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year17 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureArequipaLa Spezia
City population1,008,29092,119
People per km²1,5511,792
Museums within 10 km312
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km12
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 Arequipa or La Spezia 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). 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates.

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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.