VacationSelector
Senate Square and the statue of Alexander II, Helsinki
HelsinkiSenate Square and the statue of Alexander II
Fishing boats in the harbour, La Spezia
La SpeziaFishing boats in the harbour

Photos: Helsinki by Ximonic (Simo Räsänen), CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; La Spezia by Irina Balashova, Pexels License.

Helsinki 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 Helsinki for

  • wellness
  • live music and the arts
  • families

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

Choose La Spezia for

  • beaches
  • day trips
  • nature and the outdoors

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. Helsinki 28, La Spezia 60: La Spezia leads by 32 points.
Food & drink. Helsinki 52, La Spezia 58: La Spezia leads by 6 points.
Culture & sights. Helsinki 60, La Spezia 40: Helsinki leads by 20 points.
Nightlife. Helsinki 50, La Spezia 28: Helsinki leads by 22 points.
Nature & outdoors. Helsinki 58, La Spezia 79: La Spezia leads by 21 points.
Day trips. Helsinki 62, La Spezia 87: La Spezia leads by 25 points.
Good for families. Helsinki 76, La Spezia 48: Helsinki leads by 28 points.
Getting around. Helsinki 86, La Spezia 70: Helsinki leads by 16 points.
Shopping & style. Helsinki 62, La Spezia 35: Helsinki leads by 27 points.
Affordability. Helsinki 30, La Spezia 50: La Spezia leads by 20 points.
Live music & performing arts. Helsinki 63, La Spezia 28: Helsinki leads by 35 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Helsinki 82, La Spezia 32: Helsinki leads by 50 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Helsinki and La Spezia.

Your match

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

Helsinki
Best match
59match

Wins on wellness and live music and the arts 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.

Helsinki in July

22 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
58 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
16 °Csea
18 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

-10°0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
HelsinkiLa 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. Helsinki: 1991-2020 normals, Helsinki Kaisaniemi / Harju (1.6 km from centre). La Spezia: 1991-2020 normals, Pisa / S. Giusto (64.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureHelsinkiLa Spezia
Official languageFinnish, SwedishItalian
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+2, UTC+3 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation17 m3 m
Main airportHelsinki Vantaa Airport (HEL)16 km from centre136 non-stop destinationsPisa International Airport (PSA)65 km from centre82 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year15 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureHelsinkiLa Spezia
City population694,39292,119
People per km²3,2391,792
Museums within 10 km7412
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 Helsinki 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). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates.

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.