VacationSelector
The Sagrada Família, Barcelona
BarcelonaThe Sagrada Família
Fishing boats in the harbour, La Spezia
La SpeziaFishing boats in the harbour

Photos: Barcelona by Canaan, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; La Spezia by Irina Balashova, Pexels License.

Barcelona 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 Barcelona for

  • nightlife
  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose La Spezia for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • day trips
  • prices

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. Barcelona 75, La Spezia 60: Barcelona leads by 15 points.
Food & drink. Barcelona 82, La Spezia 58: Barcelona leads by 24 points.
Culture & sights. Barcelona 86, La Spezia 40: Barcelona leads by 46 points.
Nightlife. Barcelona 82, La Spezia 28: Barcelona leads by 54 points.
Nature & outdoors. Barcelona 72, La Spezia 79: La Spezia leads by 7 points.
Day trips. Barcelona 80, La Spezia 87: La Spezia leads by 7 points.
Good for families. Barcelona 76, La Spezia 48: Barcelona leads by 28 points.
Getting around. Barcelona 80, La Spezia 70: Barcelona leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Barcelona 75, La Spezia 35: Barcelona leads by 40 points.
Affordability. Barcelona 44, La Spezia 50: La Spezia leads by 6 points.
Live music & performing arts. Barcelona 70, La Spezia 28: Barcelona leads by 42 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Barcelona 38, La Spezia 32: Barcelona leads by 6 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Barcelona and La Spezia.

Your match

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

Barcelona
Best match
72match

Wins on nightlife and culture and sights with your weighting.

La Spezia
51match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and day trips with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Barcelona in July

28 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
27 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
24 °Csea
15 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
BarcelonaLa Spezia

Where the figures come from

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. Barcelona: 1991-2020 normals, Barcelona / Aeropuerto (14.4 km from centre). La Spezia: 1991-2020 normals, Pisa / S. Giusto (64.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBarcelonaLa Spezia
Official languageSpanishItalian
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation9 m3 m
Main airportJosep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat Airport (BCN)13 km from centre235 non-stop destinationsPisa International Airport (PSA)65 km from centre82 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureBarcelonaLa Spezia
City population1,731,64992,119
People per km²17,0941,792
Museums within 10 km9512
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km32
Swim season, months above 21 °C3 months4 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Barcelona 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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. 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.