VacationSelector
Fishing boats in the harbour, La Spezia
La SpeziaFishing boats in the harbour
The County Courthouse and its garden, Santa Barbara
Santa BarbaraThe County Courthouse and its garden

Photos: La Spezia by Irina Balashova, Pexels License; Santa Barbara by Warren LeMay, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

La Spezia or Santa Barbara?

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
  • day trips
  • getting around

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

Choose Santa Barbara for

  • live music and the arts
  • wellness
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Santa Barbara’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 and Santa Barbara are level on 60.
Food & drink. La Spezia 58, Santa Barbara 62: Santa Barbara leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. La Spezia 40, Santa Barbara 48: Santa Barbara leads by 8 points.
Nightlife. La Spezia 28, Santa Barbara 34: Santa Barbara leads by 6 points.
Nature & outdoors. La Spezia 79, Santa Barbara 80: Santa Barbara leads by 1 points.
Day trips. La Spezia 87, Santa Barbara 55: La Spezia leads by 32 points.
Good for families. La Spezia 48, Santa Barbara 64: Santa Barbara leads by 16 points.
Getting around. La Spezia 70, Santa Barbara 46: La Spezia leads by 24 points.
Shopping & style. La Spezia 35, Santa Barbara 45: Santa Barbara leads by 10 points.
Affordability. La Spezia 50, Santa Barbara 15: La Spezia leads by 35 points.
Live music & performing arts. La Spezia 28, Santa Barbara 50: Santa Barbara leads by 22 points.
Wellness & relaxation. La Spezia 32, Santa Barbara 50: Santa Barbara leads by 18 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: La Spezia and Santa Barbara.

Your match

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

Too close to call, level with your weighting

La Spezia
51match

Wins on prices and day trips with your weighting.

Santa Barbara
51match

Wins on live music and the arts and wellness 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

Santa Barbara in July

24 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
18 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
La SpeziaSanta Barbara

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.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. La Spezia: 1991-2020 normals, Pisa / S. Giusto (64.8 km from centre). Santa Barbara: 1991-2020 normals, Santa Barbara / La Patera (11.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLa SpeziaSanta Barbara
Official languageItalian-
CurrencyEuro (EUR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCFL230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation3 m15 m
Main airportPisa International Airport (PSA)65 km from centre82 non-stop destinationsSanta Barbara Municipal Airport (SBA)12 km from centre13 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureLa SpeziaSanta Barbara
City population92,11988,665
People per km²1,792816
Museums within 10 km1210
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °C4 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow La Spezia or Santa Barbara 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. 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.