VacationSelector
Bryggen across Vågen, Bergen
BergenBryggen across Vågen
Fishing boats in the harbour, La Spezia
La SpeziaFishing boats in the harbour

Photos: Bergen by Abdullah Guc, Pexels License; La Spezia by Irina Balashova, Pexels License.

Bergen 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 Bergen for

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

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

Choose La Spezia for

  • day trips
  • beaches
  • 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. Bergen 20, La Spezia 60: La Spezia leads by 40 points.
Food & drink. Bergen 47, La Spezia 58: La Spezia leads by 11 points.
Culture & sights. Bergen 55, La Spezia 40: Bergen leads by 15 points.
Nightlife. Bergen 40, La Spezia 28: Bergen leads by 12 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bergen 88, La Spezia 79: Bergen leads by 9 points.
Day trips. Bergen 38, La Spezia 87: La Spezia leads by 49 points.
Good for families. Bergen 60, La Spezia 48: Bergen leads by 12 points.
Getting around. Bergen 74, La Spezia 70: Bergen leads by 4 points.
Shopping & style. Bergen 33, La Spezia 35: La Spezia leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Bergen 12, La Spezia 50: La Spezia leads by 38 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bergen 58, La Spezia 28: Bergen leads by 30 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bergen and La Spezia are level on 32.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Bergen and La Spezia.

Your match

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

Bergen
46match

Wins on live music and the arts 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.

Bergen in July

20 °Cdaytime high
12 °Cnight-time low
159 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
15 °Csea
18 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

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
BergenLa 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. Bergen: 1991-2020 normals, Bergen / Florida (1.2 km from centre). La Spezia: 1991-2020 normals, Pisa / S. Giusto (64.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBergenLa Spezia
Official languageNorwegian, Nynorsk, Bokmål, SámiItalian
CurrencyNorwegian Krone (NOK)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 112, ambulance 113, fire 110112
Elevation5 m3 m
Main airportBergen Airport, Flesland (BGO)12 km from centre64 non-stop destinationsPisa International Airport (PSA)65 km from centre82 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureBergenLa Spezia
City population291,18992,119
People per km²3,3391,792
Museums within 10 km3112
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km12
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone4 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Bergen 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). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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.

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.