VacationSelector
Fishing boats in the harbour, La Spezia
La SpeziaFishing boats in the harbour
The Fortaleza San Felipe, Puerto Plata
Puerto PlataThe Fortaleza San Felipe

Photos: La Spezia by Irina Balashova, Pexels License; Puerto Plata by CareAhLine, CC0.

La Spezia or Puerto Plata?

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
  • day trips
  • food and drink

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

Choose Puerto Plata for

  • beaches
  • prices
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Puerto Plata’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, Puerto Plata 80: Puerto Plata leads by 20 points.
Food & drink. La Spezia 58, Puerto Plata 40: La Spezia leads by 18 points.
Culture & sights. La Spezia 40, Puerto Plata 35: La Spezia leads by 5 points.
Nightlife. La Spezia 28, Puerto Plata 38: Puerto Plata leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. La Spezia 79, Puerto Plata 68: La Spezia leads by 11 points.
Day trips. La Spezia 87, Puerto Plata 48: La Spezia leads by 39 points.
Good for families. La Spezia 48, Puerto Plata 57: Puerto Plata leads by 9 points.
Getting around. La Spezia 70, Puerto Plata 30: La Spezia leads by 40 points.
Shopping & style. La Spezia 35, Puerto Plata 30: La Spezia leads by 5 points.
Affordability. La Spezia 50, Puerto Plata 64: Puerto Plata leads by 14 points.
Live music & performing arts. La Spezia 28, Puerto Plata 18: La Spezia leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. La Spezia 32, Puerto Plata 35: Puerto Plata leads by 3 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: La Spezia and Puerto Plata.

Your match

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

La Spezia
Best match
51match

Wins on getting around and day trips with your weighting.

Puerto Plata
45match

Wins on beaches and prices 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

Puerto Plata in July

33 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
67 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
28 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
La SpeziaPuerto Plata

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.

Puerto Plata 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). Puerto Plata: 1993-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Puerto Plata (15.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLa SpeziaPuerto Plata
Official languageItalianSpanish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Dominican Peso (DOP)
SocketsCFL230 V, 50 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-4
Emergency number112911
Elevation3 m34 m
Main airportPisa International Airport (PSA)65 km from centre82 non-stop destinationsGregorio Luperon International Airport (POP)13 km from centre16 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureLa SpeziaPuerto Plata
City population92,119-
People per km²1,792-
Museums within 10 km121
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 Puerto Plata 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.