VacationSelector
The Massachusetts State House, Boston
BostonThe Massachusetts State House
Fishing boats in the harbour, La Spezia
La SpeziaFishing boats in the harbour

Photos: Boston by Ajay Suresh, CC BY 2.0, cropped; La Spezia by Irina Balashova, Pexels License.

Boston 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 Boston for

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

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

Choose La Spezia for

  • prices
  • beaches
  • 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. Boston 35, La Spezia 60: La Spezia leads by 25 points.
Food & drink. Boston 64, La Spezia 58: Boston leads by 6 points.
Culture & sights. Boston 72, La Spezia 40: Boston leads by 32 points.
Nightlife. Boston 47, La Spezia 28: Boston leads by 19 points.
Nature & outdoors. Boston 60, La Spezia 79: La Spezia leads by 19 points.
Day trips. Boston 72, La Spezia 87: La Spezia leads by 15 points.
Good for families. Boston 72, La Spezia 48: Boston leads by 24 points.
Getting around. Boston and La Spezia are level on 70.
Shopping & style. Boston 55, La Spezia 35: Boston leads by 20 points.
Affordability. Boston 18, La Spezia 50: La Spezia leads by 32 points.
Live music & performing arts. Boston 72, La Spezia 28: Boston leads by 44 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Boston 30, La Spezia 32: La Spezia leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Boston and La Spezia.

Your match

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

Boston
Best match
56match

Wins on live music and the arts and culture and sights with your weighting.

La Spezia
51match

Wins on prices 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.

Boston in July

28 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
82 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
18 °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
BostonLa 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. Boston: 1991-2020 normals, Boston Logan International (3.5 km from centre). La Spezia: 1991-2020 normals, Pisa / S. Giusto (64.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBostonLa 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
Elevation43 m3 m
Main airportBoston Logan International Airport (BOS)4 km from centre144 non-stop destinationsPisa International Airport (PSA)65 km from centre82 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureBostonLa Spezia
City population675,64792,119
People per km²2,9101,792
Museums within 10 km5112
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
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 Boston 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.