VacationSelector
Fishing boats in the harbour, La Spezia
La SpeziaFishing boats in the harbour
The Dzhumaya Mosque, Plovdiv
PlovdivThe Dzhumaya Mosque

Photos: La Spezia by Irina Balashova, Pexels License; Plovdiv by Ad Meskens, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

La Spezia or Plovdiv?

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
  • day trips
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Plovdiv for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Plovdiv’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, Plovdiv 7: La Spezia leads by 53 points.
Food & drink. La Spezia 58, Plovdiv 50: La Spezia leads by 8 points.
Culture & sights. La Spezia 40, Plovdiv 66: Plovdiv leads by 26 points.
Nightlife. La Spezia 28, Plovdiv 42: Plovdiv leads by 14 points.
Nature & outdoors. La Spezia 79, Plovdiv 68: La Spezia leads by 11 points.
Day trips. La Spezia 87, Plovdiv 70: La Spezia leads by 17 points.
Good for families. La Spezia 48, Plovdiv 40: La Spezia leads by 8 points.
Getting around. La Spezia 70, Plovdiv 65: La Spezia leads by 5 points.
Shopping & style. La Spezia 35, Plovdiv 33: La Spezia leads by 2 points.
Affordability. La Spezia 50, Plovdiv 78: Plovdiv leads by 28 points.
Live music & performing arts. La Spezia 28, Plovdiv 42: Plovdiv leads by 14 points.
Wellness & relaxation. La Spezia 32, Plovdiv 44: Plovdiv leads by 12 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: La Spezia and Plovdiv.

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 beaches and day trips with your weighting.

Plovdiv
50match

Wins on prices 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

Plovdiv in July

31 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
44 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
La SpeziaPlovdiv

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.

Plovdiv 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.

Plovdiv's sunshine is measured 75 km from the centre, at Kurdjali.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. La Spezia: 1991-2020 normals, Pisa / S. Giusto (64.8 km from centre). Plovdiv: 1997-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Plovdiv (1.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLa SpeziaPlovdiv
Official languageItalianBulgarian
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCFL230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+2, UTC+3 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation3 m172 m
Main airportPisa International Airport (PSA)65 km from centre82 non-stop destinationsPlovdiv International Airport (PDV)12 km from centre8 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days15 days

By the numbers

MeasureLa SpeziaPlovdiv
City population92,119333,994
People per km²1,7923,274
Museums within 10 km1218
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °C4 months-

Where else could you go?

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