VacationSelector
Fishing boats in the harbour, La Spezia
La SpeziaFishing boats in the harbour
Kek Lok Si temple on the hillside, Penang
PenangKek Lok Si temple on the hillside

Photos: La Spezia by Irina Balashova, Pexels License; Penang by Supanut Arunoprayote, CC BY 4.0, cropped.

La Spezia or Penang?

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

  • day trips
  • getting around
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Penang for

  • culture and sights
  • food and drink
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Penang’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, Penang 44: La Spezia leads by 16 points.
Food & drink. La Spezia 58, Penang 86: Penang leads by 28 points.
Culture & sights. La Spezia 40, Penang 70: Penang leads by 30 points.
Nightlife. La Spezia 28, Penang 40: Penang leads by 12 points.
Nature & outdoors. La Spezia 79, Penang 55: La Spezia leads by 24 points.
Day trips. La Spezia 87, Penang 42: La Spezia leads by 45 points.
Good for families. La Spezia 48, Penang 52: Penang leads by 4 points.
Getting around. La Spezia 70, Penang 40: La Spezia leads by 30 points.
Shopping & style. La Spezia 35, Penang 42: Penang leads by 7 points.
Affordability. La Spezia 50, Penang 78: Penang leads by 28 points.
Live music & performing arts. La Spezia 28, Penang 30: Penang leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. La Spezia 32, Penang 42: Penang 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 Penang.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

La Spezia
51match

Wins on day trips and getting around with your weighting.

Penang
52match

Wins on culture and sights and food and drink 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

Penang in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
189 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
30 °Csea
12 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
La SpeziaPenang

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). Penang: 1991-2020 normals, Penang / Bayan Lepas (14.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLa SpeziaPenang
Official languageItalianMalay
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Malaysian Ringgit (MYR)
SocketsCFL230 V, 50 HzG240 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+8
Emergency number112999
Elevation3 m4 m
Main airportPisa International Airport (PSA)65 km from centre82 non-stop destinationsPenang International Airport (PEN)14 km from centre32 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days-

By the numbers

MeasureLa SpeziaPenang
City population92,119794,313
People per km²1,792-
Museums within 10 km129
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
Swim season, months above 21 °C4 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow La Spezia or Penang 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.