VacationSelector
The Scott Monument and Princes Street Gardens, Edinburgh
EdinburghThe Scott Monument and Princes Street Gardens
Fishing boats in the harbour, La Spezia
La SpeziaFishing boats in the harbour

Photos: Edinburgh by Carlos Delgado, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; La Spezia by Irina Balashova, Pexels License.

Edinburgh 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 Edinburgh for

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

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

Choose La Spezia for

  • beaches
  • prices
  • 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. Edinburgh 22, La Spezia 60: La Spezia leads by 38 points.
Food & drink. Edinburgh 53, La Spezia 58: La Spezia leads by 5 points.
Culture & sights. Edinburgh 75, La Spezia 40: Edinburgh leads by 35 points.
Nightlife. Edinburgh 50, La Spezia 28: Edinburgh leads by 22 points.
Nature & outdoors. Edinburgh 75, La Spezia 79: La Spezia leads by 4 points.
Day trips. Edinburgh 75, La Spezia 87: La Spezia leads by 12 points.
Good for families. Edinburgh 62, La Spezia 48: Edinburgh leads by 14 points.
Getting around. Edinburgh 74, La Spezia 70: Edinburgh leads by 4 points.
Shopping & style. Edinburgh 50, La Spezia 35: Edinburgh leads by 15 points.
Affordability. Edinburgh 30, La Spezia 50: La Spezia leads by 20 points.
Live music & performing arts. Edinburgh 72, La Spezia 28: Edinburgh leads by 44 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Edinburgh 34, La Spezia 32: Edinburgh leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Edinburgh and La Spezia.

Your match

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

Edinburgh
Best match
56match

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

La Spezia
51match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Edinburgh in July

19 °Cdaytime high
11 °Cnight-time low
66 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
14 °Csea
17 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
EdinburghLa Spezia

Where the figures come from

Edinburgh 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.

Edinburgh's sunshine is measured 52 km from the centre, at Leuchars.

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. Edinburgh: 1991-2020 normals, Edinburgh Airport (10 km from centre). La Spezia: 1991-2020 normals, Pisa / S. Giusto (64.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEdinburghLa 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
Elevation47 m3 m
Main airportEdinburgh Airport (EDI)11 km from centre163 non-stop destinationsPisa International Airport (PSA)65 km from centre82 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureEdinburghLa Spezia
City population488,05092,119
People per km²1,8841,792
Museums within 10 km3212
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 Edinburgh 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.