VacationSelector
Fishing boats in the harbour, La Spezia
La SpeziaFishing boats in the harbour
The railway viaduct over the canal, Castlefield, Manchester
ManchesterThe railway viaduct over the canal, Castlefield

Photos: La Spezia by Irina Balashova, Pexels License; Manchester by IIya Kuzhekin, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

La Spezia or Manchester?

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

  • beaches
  • wellness
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Manchester for

  • live music and the arts
  • nightlife
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Manchester’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, Manchester 9: La Spezia leads by 51 points.
Food & drink. La Spezia 58, Manchester 51: La Spezia leads by 7 points.
Culture & sights. La Spezia 40, Manchester 50: Manchester leads by 10 points.
Nightlife. La Spezia 28, Manchester 72: Manchester leads by 44 points.
Nature & outdoors. La Spezia 79, Manchester 64: La Spezia leads by 15 points.
Day trips. La Spezia 87, Manchester 77: La Spezia leads by 10 points.
Good for families. La Spezia 48, Manchester 58: Manchester leads by 10 points.
Getting around. La Spezia 70, Manchester 68: La Spezia leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. La Spezia 35, Manchester 62: Manchester leads by 27 points.
Affordability. La Spezia 50, Manchester 42: La Spezia leads by 8 points.
Live music & performing arts. La Spezia 28, Manchester 74: Manchester leads by 46 points.
Wellness & relaxation. La Spezia 32, Manchester 15: La Spezia leads by 17 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: La Spezia and Manchester.

Your match

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

La Spezia
51match

Wins on beaches and wellness with your weighting.

Manchester
Best match
54match

Wins on live music and the arts and nightlife 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

Manchester in July

21 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
60 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
16 °Csea
17 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
La SpeziaManchester

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). Manchester: 1991-2020 normals, Manchester Airport (14.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLa SpeziaManchester
Official languageItalianEnglish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Pound Sterling (GBP)
SocketsCFL230 V, 50 HzG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC, UTC+1 in summer
Emergency number112112 or 999
Elevation3 m38 m
Main airportPisa International Airport (PSA)65 km from centre82 non-stop destinationsManchester Airport (MAN)15 km from centre211 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days8 days

By the numbers

MeasureLa SpeziaManchester
City population92,119547,627
People per km²1,7924,737
Museums within 10 km1228
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km22
Swim season, months above 21 °C4 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow La Spezia or Manchester 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. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.