VacationSelector
Lion's Head above Clifton Beach, Cape Town
Cape TownLion's Head above Clifton Beach
Fishing boats in the harbour, La Spezia
La SpeziaFishing boats in the harbour

Photos: Cape Town by Stephan Louis, Pexels License; La Spezia by Irina Balashova, Pexels License.

Cape Town 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 Cape Town for

  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts
  • prices

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

Choose La Spezia for

  • getting around
  • day trips
  • beaches

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. Cape Town 58, La Spezia 60: La Spezia leads by 2 points.
Food & drink. Cape Town 72, La Spezia 58: Cape Town leads by 14 points.
Culture & sights. Cape Town 60, La Spezia 40: Cape Town leads by 20 points.
Nightlife. Cape Town 60, La Spezia 28: Cape Town leads by 32 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cape Town 98, La Spezia 79: Cape Town leads by 19 points.
Day trips. Cape Town 68, La Spezia 87: La Spezia leads by 19 points.
Good for families. Cape Town 58, La Spezia 48: Cape Town leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Cape Town 35, La Spezia 70: La Spezia leads by 35 points.
Shopping & style. Cape Town 50, La Spezia 35: Cape Town leads by 15 points.
Affordability. Cape Town 72, La Spezia 50: Cape Town leads by 22 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cape Town 52, La Spezia 28: Cape Town leads by 24 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cape Town 45, La Spezia 32: Cape Town leads by 13 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Cape Town
Best match
61match

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

La Spezia
51match

Wins on getting around 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.

Cape Town in July

18 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
89 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
15 °Csea
10 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
Cape TownLa 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. Cape Town: 1991-2020 normals, Cape Town Airport (17.5 km from centre). La Spezia: 1991-2020 normals, Pisa / S. Giusto (64.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCape TownLa Spezia
Official languageEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign LanguageItalian
CurrencyRand (ZAR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCMN230 V, 50 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+2UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation5 m3 m
Main airportCape Town International Airport (CPT)18 km from centre45 non-stop destinationsPisa International Airport (PSA)65 km from centre82 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureCape TownLa Spezia
City population3,776,31392,119
People per km²1,5381,792
Museums within 10 km2212
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km32
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 Cape Town 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.