VacationSelector
Cardiff Castle, Cardiff
CardiffCardiff Castle
Fishing boats in the harbour, La Spezia
La SpeziaFishing boats in the harbour

Photos: Cardiff by Tevfik Teker, CC BY 3.0, cropped; La Spezia by Irina Balashova, Pexels License.

Cardiff 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 Cardiff for

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

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

Choose La Spezia for

  • beaches
  • day trips
  • food and drink

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. Cardiff 30, La Spezia 60: La Spezia leads by 30 points.
Food & drink. Cardiff 45, La Spezia 58: La Spezia leads by 13 points.
Culture & sights. Cardiff 58, La Spezia 40: Cardiff leads by 18 points.
Nightlife. Cardiff 50, La Spezia 28: Cardiff leads by 22 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cardiff 70, La Spezia 79: La Spezia leads by 9 points.
Day trips. Cardiff 72, La Spezia 87: La Spezia leads by 15 points.
Good for families. Cardiff 58, La Spezia 48: Cardiff leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Cardiff 66, La Spezia 70: La Spezia leads by 4 points.
Shopping & style. Cardiff 50, La Spezia 35: Cardiff leads by 15 points.
Affordability. Cardiff 46, La Spezia 50: La Spezia leads by 4 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cardiff 57, La Spezia 28: Cardiff leads by 29 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cardiff 27, La Spezia 32: La Spezia leads by 5 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cardiff 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

Cardiff
52match

Wins on live music and the arts and nightlife 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.

Cardiff in July

20 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
83 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
17 °Csea
16 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
CardiffLa Spezia

Where the figures come from

Cardiff 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.

Cardiff's sunshine is measured 83 km from the centre, at Lyneham.

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. Cardiff: 1991-2020 normals, Cardiff-Wales Airport (14.9 km from centre). La Spezia: 1991-2020 normals, Pisa / S. Giusto (64.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCardiffLa Spezia
Official languageEnglishItalian
CurrencyPound Sterling (GBP)Euro (EUR)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112 or 999112
Elevation41 m3 m
Main airportCardiff International Airport (CWL)15 km from centre30 non-stop destinationsPisa International Airport (PSA)65 km from centre82 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year8 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureCardiffLa Spezia
City population383,53692,119
People per km²2,7341,792
Museums within 10 km912
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km12
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 Cardiff 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.