VacationSelector
Fishing boats in the harbour, La Spezia
La SpeziaFishing boats in the harbour
The cathedral from the gardens, Malaga
MalagaThe cathedral from the gardens

Photos: La Spezia by Irina Balashova, Pexels License; Malaga by Holger Uwe Schmitt, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

La Spezia or Malaga?

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 La Spezia for

  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Malaga for

  • nightlife
  • culture and sights
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Malaga’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. La Spezia 60, Malaga 77: Malaga leads by 17 points.
Food & drink. La Spezia 58, Malaga 68: Malaga leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. La Spezia 40, Malaga 65: Malaga leads by 25 points.
Nightlife. La Spezia 28, Malaga 62: Malaga leads by 34 points.
Nature & outdoors. La Spezia 79, Malaga 73: La Spezia leads by 6 points.
Day trips. La Spezia and Malaga are level on 87.
Good for families. La Spezia 48, Malaga 70: Malaga leads by 22 points.
Getting around. La Spezia and Malaga are level on 70.
Shopping & style. La Spezia 35, Malaga 55: Malaga leads by 20 points.
Affordability. La Spezia 50, Malaga 55: Malaga leads by 5 points.
Live music & performing arts. La Spezia 28, Malaga 45: Malaga leads by 17 points.
Wellness & relaxation. La Spezia 32, Malaga 42: Malaga leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: La Spezia and Malaga.

Your match

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

La Spezia
51match

Wins on nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Malaga
Best match
64match

Wins on nightlife and culture and sights with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

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

Malaga in July

31 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
22 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
La SpeziaMalaga

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. La Spezia: 1991-2020 normals, Pisa / S. Giusto (64.8 km from centre). Malaga: 1991-2020 normals, Malaga / Aeropuerto (8.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLa SpeziaMalaga
Official languageItalianSpanish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCFL230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation3 m18 m
Main airportPisa International Airport (PSA)65 km from centre82 non-stop destinationsMálaga-Costa del Sol Airport (AGP)8 km from centre166 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureLa SpeziaMalaga
City population92,119599,063
People per km²1,7921,517
Museums within 10 km1232
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
Swim season, months above 21 °C4 months3 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow La Spezia or Malaga 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.