VacationSelector
The beach with its parasols and the boardwalk, Bethany Beach
Bethany BeachThe beach with its parasols and the boardwalk
Fishing boats in the harbour, La Spezia
La SpeziaFishing boats in the harbour

Photos: Bethany Beach by Doug Olson, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; La Spezia by Irina Balashova, Pexels License.

Bethany Beach 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 Bethany Beach for

  • families
  • beaches
  • wellness

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

Choose La Spezia for

  • day trips
  • getting around
  • nature and the outdoors

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. Bethany Beach 72, La Spezia 60: Bethany Beach leads by 12 points.
Food & drink. Bethany Beach 35, La Spezia 58: La Spezia leads by 23 points.
Culture & sights. Bethany Beach 10, La Spezia 40: La Spezia leads by 30 points.
Nightlife. Bethany Beach 12, La Spezia 28: La Spezia leads by 16 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bethany Beach 48, La Spezia 79: La Spezia leads by 31 points.
Day trips. Bethany Beach 45, La Spezia 87: La Spezia leads by 42 points.
Good for families. Bethany Beach 66, La Spezia 48: Bethany Beach leads by 18 points.
Getting around. Bethany Beach 33, La Spezia 70: La Spezia leads by 37 points.
Shopping & style. Bethany Beach 28, La Spezia 35: La Spezia leads by 7 points.
Affordability. Bethany Beach 30, La Spezia 50: La Spezia leads by 20 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bethany Beach 14, La Spezia 28: La Spezia leads by 14 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bethany Beach 33, La Spezia 32: Bethany Beach leads by 1 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Bethany Beach and La Spezia.

Your match

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

Bethany Beach
36match

Wins on families and beaches with your weighting.

La Spezia
Best match
51match

Wins on day trips 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.

Bethany Beach in July

31 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
95 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
23 °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
Bethany BeachLa Spezia

Where the figures come from

Bethany Beach's temperatures are measured 45 km from the centre, at Salisbury / Quail Ridge.

Bethany Beach 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.

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. Bethany Beach: 1991-2020 normals, Salisbury / Quail Ridge (44.9 km from centre). La Spezia: 1991-2020 normals, Pisa / S. Giusto (64.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBethany BeachLa Spezia
Official language-Italian
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation3 m3 m
Main airportSalisbury Ocean City Wicomico Regional Airport (SBY)45 km from centre4 non-stop destinationsPisa International Airport (PSA)65 km from centre82 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureBethany BeachLa Spezia
City population95492,119
People per km²3181,792
Museums within 10 km012
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
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 Bethany Beach 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). 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. 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.

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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.