VacationSelector
Fishing boats in the harbour, La Spezia
La SpeziaFishing boats in the harbour
La Concha beach and Monte Urgull, San Sebastian
San SebastianLa Concha beach and Monte Urgull

Photos: La Spezia by Irina Balashova, Pexels License; San Sebastian by Guérin Nicolas, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

La Spezia or San Sebastian?

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

  • prices
  • nature and the outdoors
  • day trips

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

Choose San Sebastian for

  • food and drink
  • families
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on San Sebastian’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, San Sebastian 68: San Sebastian leads by 8 points.
Food & drink. La Spezia 58, San Sebastian 88: San Sebastian leads by 30 points.
Culture & sights. La Spezia 40, San Sebastian 52: San Sebastian leads by 12 points.
Nightlife. La Spezia 28, San Sebastian 44: San Sebastian leads by 16 points.
Nature & outdoors. La Spezia 79, San Sebastian 72: La Spezia leads by 7 points.
Day trips. La Spezia 87, San Sebastian 80: La Spezia leads by 7 points.
Good for families. La Spezia 48, San Sebastian 66: San Sebastian leads by 18 points.
Getting around. La Spezia 70, San Sebastian 80: San Sebastian leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. La Spezia 35, San Sebastian 40: San Sebastian leads by 5 points.
Affordability. La Spezia 50, San Sebastian 32: La Spezia leads by 18 points.
Live music & performing arts. La Spezia 28, San Sebastian 45: San Sebastian leads by 17 points.
Wellness & relaxation. La Spezia 32, San Sebastian 50: San Sebastian leads by 18 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: La Spezia and San Sebastian.

Your match

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

La Spezia
51match

Wins on prices and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

San Sebastian
Best match
60match

Wins on food and drink 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

San Sebastian in July

22 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
92 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
21 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
La SpeziaSan Sebastian

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.

San Sebastian's station stands 252 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer than the figures say.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. La Spezia: 1991-2020 normals, Pisa / S. Giusto (64.8 km from centre). San Sebastian: 1991-2020 normals, San Sebastian / Igueldo (6.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLa SpeziaSan Sebastian
Official languageItalianSpanish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCFL230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation3 m6 m
Main airportPisa International Airport (PSA)65 km from centre82 non-stop destinationsSan Sebastián Airport (EAS)16 km from centre11 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureLa SpeziaSan Sebastian
City population92,119189,866
People per km²1,7923,118
Museums within 10 km1214
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km23
Swim season, months above 21 °C4 months2 months

Where else could you go?

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