VacationSelector
Fishing boats in the harbour, La Spezia
La SpeziaFishing boats in the harbour
The Plaza de los Naranjos and its fountain in the old town, Marbella
MarbellaThe Plaza de los Naranjos and its fountain in the old town

Photos: La Spezia by Irina Balashova, Pexels License; Marbella by Décio Franchini, Pexels License.

La Spezia or Marbella?

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

  • getting around
  • prices
  • day trips

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

Choose Marbella for

  • nightlife
  • shopping
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Marbella’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, Marbella 76: Marbella leads by 16 points.
Food & drink. La Spezia 58, Marbella 60: Marbella leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. La Spezia 40, Marbella 32: La Spezia leads by 8 points.
Nightlife. La Spezia 28, Marbella 64: Marbella leads by 36 points.
Nature & outdoors. La Spezia 79, Marbella 70: La Spezia leads by 9 points.
Day trips. La Spezia 87, Marbella 77: La Spezia leads by 10 points.
Good for families. La Spezia 48, Marbella 70: Marbella leads by 22 points.
Getting around. La Spezia 70, Marbella 38: La Spezia leads by 32 points.
Shopping & style. La Spezia 35, Marbella 58: Marbella leads by 23 points.
Affordability. La Spezia 50, Marbella 30: La Spezia leads by 20 points.
Live music & performing arts. La Spezia 28, Marbella 30: Marbella leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. La Spezia 32, Marbella 52: Marbella leads by 20 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: La Spezia and Marbella.

Your match

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

La Spezia
51match

Wins on getting around and prices with your weighting.

Marbella
Best match
55match

Wins on nightlife and shopping 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

Marbella in July

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

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
La SpeziaMarbella

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.

Marbella's temperatures are measured 40 km from the centre, at Malaga / Aeropuerto.

Marbella 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). Marbella: 1991-2020 normals, Malaga / Aeropuerto (39.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLa SpeziaMarbella
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 m22 m
Main airportPisa International Airport (PSA)65 km from centre82 non-stop destinationsMálaga-Costa del Sol Airport (AGP)39 km from centre166 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureLa SpeziaMarbella
City population92,119159,786
People per km²1,7921,398
Museums within 10 km126
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
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 Marbella 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.