VacationSelector
Fishing boats in the harbour, La Spezia
La SpeziaFishing boats in the harbour
Playa de los Muertos below the green hills, Puerto Vallarta
Puerto VallartaPlaya de los Muertos below the green hills

Photos: La Spezia by Irina Balashova, Pexels License; Puerto Vallarta by RL0919, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

La Spezia or Puerto Vallarta?

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
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Puerto Vallarta for

  • nightlife
  • beaches
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Puerto Vallarta’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 Vallarta 85: Puerto Vallarta leads by 25 points.
Food & drink. La Spezia 58, Puerto Vallarta 62: Puerto Vallarta leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. La Spezia 40, Puerto Vallarta 28: La Spezia leads by 12 points.
Nightlife. La Spezia 28, Puerto Vallarta 66: Puerto Vallarta leads by 38 points.
Nature & outdoors. La Spezia 79, Puerto Vallarta 76: La Spezia leads by 3 points.
Day trips. La Spezia 87, Puerto Vallarta 55: La Spezia leads by 32 points.
Good for families. La Spezia 48, Puerto Vallarta 65: Puerto Vallarta leads by 17 points.
Getting around. La Spezia 70, Puerto Vallarta 45: La Spezia leads by 25 points.
Shopping & style. La Spezia 35, Puerto Vallarta 42: Puerto Vallarta leads by 7 points.
Affordability. La Spezia 50, Puerto Vallarta 60: Puerto Vallarta leads by 10 points.
Live music & performing arts. La Spezia 28, Puerto Vallarta 32: Puerto Vallarta leads by 4 points.
Wellness & relaxation. La Spezia 32, Puerto Vallarta 52: Puerto Vallarta 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 Puerto Vallarta.

Your match

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

La Spezia
51match

Wins on day trips and getting around with your weighting.

Puerto Vallarta
Best match
56match

Wins on nightlife and beaches 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 Vallarta in July

34 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
209 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
30 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
La SpeziaPuerto Vallarta

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 Vallarta 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). Puerto Vallarta: 1991-2020 normals, TerraClimate 4 km grid at the town, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureLa SpeziaPuerto Vallarta
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-6
Emergency number112911
Elevation3 m101 m
Main airportPisa International Airport (PSA)65 km from centre82 non-stop destinationsPuerto Vallarta International Airport (PVR)5 km from centre52 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureLa SpeziaPuerto Vallarta
City population92,119224,166
People per km²1,7924,311
Museums within 10 km122
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 Puerto Vallarta 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.