VacationSelector
The pastel houses of Rainbow Row, Charleston
CharlestonThe pastel houses of Rainbow Row
Fishing boats in the harbour, La Spezia
La SpeziaFishing boats in the harbour

Photos: Charleston by NealVickers, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; La Spezia by Irina Balashova, Pexels License.

Charleston 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 Charleston for

  • culture and sights
  • shopping
  • nightlife

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

Choose La Spezia for

  • day trips
  • nature and the outdoors
  • getting around

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. Charleston 72, La Spezia 60: Charleston leads by 12 points.
Food & drink. Charleston 72, La Spezia 58: Charleston leads by 14 points.
Culture & sights. Charleston 64, La Spezia 40: Charleston leads by 24 points.
Nightlife. Charleston 44, La Spezia 28: Charleston leads by 16 points.
Nature & outdoors. Charleston 55, La Spezia 79: La Spezia leads by 24 points.
Day trips. Charleston 62, La Spezia 87: La Spezia leads by 25 points.
Good for families. Charleston 60, La Spezia 48: Charleston leads by 12 points.
Getting around. Charleston 46, La Spezia 70: La Spezia leads by 24 points.
Shopping & style. Charleston 55, La Spezia 35: Charleston leads by 20 points.
Affordability. Charleston 27, La Spezia 50: La Spezia leads by 23 points.
Live music & performing arts. Charleston 42, La Spezia 28: Charleston leads by 14 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Charleston 40, La Spezia 32: Charleston leads by 8 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Charleston and La Spezia.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Charleston
53match

Wins on culture and sights and shopping with your weighting.

La Spezia
51match

Wins on day trips and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Charleston in July

33 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
167 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
28 °Csea
14 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
CharlestonLa 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. Charleston: 1991-2020 normals, Charleston Airport (16.1 km from centre). La Spezia: 1991-2020 normals, Pisa / S. Giusto (64.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCharlestonLa 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
Elevation6 m3 m
Main airportCharleston International Airport (CHS)16 km from centre56 non-stop destinationsPisa International Airport (PSA)65 km from centre82 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureCharlestonLa Spezia
City population150,22792,119
People per km²5321,792
Museums within 10 km1912
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
Swim season, months above 21 °C6 months4 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Charleston 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.