VacationSelector
Fishing boats in the harbour, La Spezia
La SpeziaFishing boats in the harbour
The town beach and the Portal Maya sculpture, Playa del Carmen
Playa del CarmenThe town beach and the Portal Maya sculpture

Photos: La Spezia by Irina Balashova, Pexels License; Playa del Carmen by lazyweaver, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

La Spezia or Playa del Carmen?

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

  • culture and sights
  • day trips
  • getting around

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

Choose Playa del Carmen for

  • nightlife
  • families
  • beaches

What lies behind each score is written up on Playa del Carmen’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, Playa del Carmen 88: Playa del Carmen leads by 28 points.
Food & drink. La Spezia 58, Playa del Carmen 52: La Spezia leads by 6 points.
Culture & sights. La Spezia 40, Playa del Carmen 12: La Spezia leads by 28 points.
Nightlife. La Spezia 28, Playa del Carmen 66: Playa del Carmen leads by 38 points.
Nature & outdoors. La Spezia 79, Playa del Carmen 74: La Spezia leads by 5 points.
Day trips. La Spezia 87, Playa del Carmen 72: La Spezia leads by 15 points.
Good for families. La Spezia 48, Playa del Carmen 78: Playa del Carmen leads by 30 points.
Getting around. La Spezia 70, Playa del Carmen 55: La Spezia leads by 15 points.
Shopping & style. La Spezia 35, Playa del Carmen 38: Playa del Carmen leads by 3 points.
Affordability. La Spezia 50, Playa del Carmen 52: Playa del Carmen leads by 2 points.
Live music & performing arts. La Spezia 28, Playa del Carmen 22: La Spezia leads by 6 points.
Wellness & relaxation. La Spezia 32, Playa del Carmen 54: Playa del Carmen leads by 22 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: La Spezia and Playa del Carmen.

Your match

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

La Spezia
51match

Wins on culture and sights and day trips with your weighting.

Playa del Carmen
Best match
55match

Wins on nightlife and families 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

Playa del Carmen in July

29 °Cdaytime high
27 °Cnight-time low
96 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
La SpeziaPlaya del Carmen

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.

Playa del Carmen has no weather station within reach, so its figures come from a gridded climate model rather than a measured record, and read a broad area rather than the city itself.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. La Spezia: 1991-2020 normals, Pisa / S. Giusto (64.8 km from centre). Playa del Carmen: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureLa SpeziaPlaya del Carmen
Official languageItalianSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsCFL230 V, 50 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-5
Emergency number112911
Elevation3 m8 m
Main airportPisa International Airport (PSA)65 km from centre82 non-stop destinationsCancún International Airport (CUN)50 km from centre137 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureLa SpeziaPlaya del Carmen
City population92,119304,942
People per km²1,792-
Museums within 10 km120
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
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 Playa del Carmen 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. Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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.