VacationSelector
Fishing boats in the harbour, La Spezia
La SpeziaFishing boats in the harbour
The wharf at Queenstown with the Remarkables behind, Queenstown
QueenstownThe wharf at Queenstown with the Remarkables behind

Photos: La Spezia by Irina Balashova, Pexels License; Queenstown by Robert Linsdell, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

La Spezia or Queenstown?

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
  • prices

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

Choose Queenstown for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • nightlife
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Queenstown’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, Queenstown 20: La Spezia leads by 40 points.
Food & drink. La Spezia 58, Queenstown 45: La Spezia leads by 13 points.
Culture & sights. La Spezia 40, Queenstown 12: La Spezia leads by 28 points.
Nightlife. La Spezia 28, Queenstown 42: Queenstown leads by 14 points.
Nature & outdoors. La Spezia 79, Queenstown 97: Queenstown leads by 18 points.
Day trips. La Spezia 87, Queenstown 50: La Spezia leads by 37 points.
Good for families. La Spezia 48, Queenstown 60: Queenstown leads by 12 points.
Getting around. La Spezia 70, Queenstown 45: La Spezia leads by 25 points.
Shopping & style. La Spezia 35, Queenstown 28: La Spezia leads by 7 points.
Affordability. La Spezia 50, Queenstown 20: La Spezia leads by 30 points.
Live music & performing arts. La Spezia 28, Queenstown 14: La Spezia leads by 14 points.
Wellness & relaxation. La Spezia 32, Queenstown 42: Queenstown 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 Queenstown.

Your match

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

La Spezia
Best match
51match

Wins on beaches and day trips with your weighting.

Queenstown
40match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and nightlife 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

Queenstown in July

6 °Cdaytime high
-1 °Cnight-time low
115 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
9 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
La SpeziaQueenstown

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.

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

Before you go

MeasureLa SpeziaQueenstown
Official languageItalianEnglish, New Zealand Sign Language, Māori
CurrencyEuro (EUR)New Zealand Dollar (NZD)
SocketsCFL230 V, 50 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+12, UTC+13 in summer
Emergency number112111
Elevation3 m324 m
Main airportPisa International Airport (PSA)65 km from centre82 non-stop destinationsQueenstown Airport (ZQN)7 km from centre7 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureLa SpeziaQueenstown
City population92,11929,000
People per km²1,792-
Museums within 10 km120
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 Queenstown 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. Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national sources. 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.