VacationSelector
The Guggenheim Museum on the river, Bilbao
BilbaoThe Guggenheim Museum on the river
Fishing boats in the harbour, La Spezia
La SpeziaFishing boats in the harbour

Photos: Bilbao by José Ligero Loarte, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; La Spezia by Irina Balashova, Pexels License.

Bilbao 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 Bilbao for

  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts
  • food and drink

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

Choose La Spezia for

  • beaches
  • 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. Bilbao 45, La Spezia 60: La Spezia leads by 15 points.
Food & drink. Bilbao 81, La Spezia 58: Bilbao leads by 23 points.
Culture & sights. Bilbao 62, La Spezia 40: Bilbao leads by 22 points.
Nightlife. Bilbao 54, La Spezia 28: Bilbao leads by 26 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bilbao 75, La Spezia 79: La Spezia leads by 4 points.
Day trips. Bilbao 78, La Spezia 87: La Spezia leads by 9 points.
Good for families. Bilbao 55, La Spezia 48: Bilbao leads by 7 points.
Getting around. Bilbao 79, La Spezia 70: Bilbao leads by 9 points.
Shopping & style. Bilbao 47, La Spezia 35: Bilbao leads by 12 points.
Affordability. Bilbao 44, La Spezia 50: La Spezia leads by 6 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bilbao 53, La Spezia 28: Bilbao leads by 25 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bilbao 33, La Spezia 32: Bilbao leads by 1 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Bilbao and La Spezia.

Your match

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

Bilbao
Best match
59match

Wins on nightlife and live music and the arts with your weighting.

La Spezia
51match

Wins on beaches 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.

Bilbao in July

25 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
54 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
21 °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
BilbaoLa 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. Bilbao: 1991-2020 normals, Bilbao / Sondica (4.1 km from centre). La Spezia: 1991-2020 normals, Pisa / S. Giusto (64.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBilbaoLa 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
Elevation19 m3 m
Main airportBilbao Airport (BIO)5 km from centre73 non-stop destinationsPisa International Airport (PSA)65 km from centre82 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureBilbaoLa Spezia
City population351,12492,119
People per km²8,4401,792
Museums within 10 km1712
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km22
Swim season, months above 21 °C1 month4 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Bilbao 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.