VacationSelector
The coastline of the Hotel Zone, Cancun
CancunThe coastline of the Hotel Zone
Fishing boats in the harbour, La Spezia
La SpeziaFishing boats in the harbour

Photos: Cancun by Tellez Erik, Pexels License; La Spezia by Irina Balashova, Pexels License.

Cancun 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 Cancun for

  • nightlife
  • beaches
  • families

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

Choose La Spezia for

  • getting around
  • culture and sights
  • day trips

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. Cancun 98, La Spezia 60: Cancun leads by 38 points.
Food & drink. Cancun 44, La Spezia 58: La Spezia leads by 14 points.
Culture & sights. Cancun 15, La Spezia 40: La Spezia leads by 25 points.
Nightlife. Cancun 70, La Spezia 28: Cancun leads by 42 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cancun 66, La Spezia 79: La Spezia leads by 13 points.
Day trips. Cancun 65, La Spezia 87: La Spezia leads by 22 points.
Good for families. Cancun 78, La Spezia 48: Cancun leads by 30 points.
Getting around. Cancun 25, La Spezia 70: La Spezia leads by 45 points.
Shopping & style. Cancun 40, La Spezia 35: Cancun leads by 5 points.
Affordability. Cancun 46, La Spezia 50: La Spezia leads by 4 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cancun 17, La Spezia 28: La Spezia leads by 11 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cancun 55, La Spezia 32: Cancun leads by 23 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Cancun
52match

Wins on nightlife and beaches with your weighting.

La Spezia
51match

Wins on getting around and culture and sights with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Cancun in July

30 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
89 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
29 °Csea
13 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

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
CancunLa Spezia

Where the figures come from

Cancun has no weather station within reach, so its figures come from a gridded climate model rather than a measured record, and read a broad area rather than the city itself.

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. Cancun: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km. La Spezia: 1991-2020 normals, Pisa / S. Giusto (64.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCancunLa Spezia
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaItalian
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation5 m3 m
Main airportCancún International Airport (CUN)14 km from centre137 non-stop destinationsPisa International Airport (PSA)65 km from centre82 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureCancunLa Spezia
City population888,79792,119
People per km²-1,792
Museums within 10 km112
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months4 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Cancun or La Spezia somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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. Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. 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.