VacationSelector
Fishing boats in the harbour, La Spezia
La SpeziaFishing boats in the harbour
The adobe New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe
Santa FeThe adobe New Mexico Museum of Art

Photos: La Spezia by Irina Balashova, Pexels License; Santa Fe by dconvertini, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

La Spezia or Santa Fe?

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
  • getting around
  • prices

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

Choose Santa Fe for

  • shopping
  • live music and the arts
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Santa Fe’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, Santa Fe 5: La Spezia leads by 55 points.
Food & drink. La Spezia 58, Santa Fe 62: Santa Fe leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. La Spezia 40, Santa Fe 66: Santa Fe leads by 26 points.
Nightlife. La Spezia 28, Santa Fe 22: La Spezia leads by 6 points.
Nature & outdoors. La Spezia 79, Santa Fe 80: Santa Fe leads by 1 points.
Day trips. La Spezia 87, Santa Fe 70: La Spezia leads by 17 points.
Good for families. La Spezia 48, Santa Fe 45: La Spezia leads by 3 points.
Getting around. La Spezia 70, Santa Fe 40: La Spezia leads by 30 points.
Shopping & style. La Spezia 35, Santa Fe 62: Santa Fe leads by 27 points.
Affordability. La Spezia 50, Santa Fe 30: La Spezia leads by 20 points.
Live music & performing arts. La Spezia 28, Santa Fe 55: Santa Fe leads by 27 points.
Wellness & relaxation. La Spezia 32, Santa Fe 55: Santa Fe leads by 23 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: La Spezia and Santa Fe.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

La Spezia
51match

Wins on beaches and getting around with your weighting.

Santa Fe
49match

Wins on shopping and live music and the arts 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 Fe in July

31 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
60 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
La SpeziaSanta Fe

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.

Santa Fe's station stands 199 m below the city centre, so the centre is likely a little cooler than the figures say.

Santa Fe 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 Fe: 1991-2020 normals, Santa Fe / Cieneguilla (12.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLa SpeziaSanta Fe
Official languageItalian-
CurrencyEuro (EUR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCFL230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-7, UTC-6 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation3 m2,134 m
Main airportPisa International Airport (PSA)65 km from centre82 non-stop destinationsSanta Fe Municipal Airport (SAF)12 km from centre5 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureLa SpeziaSanta Fe
City population92,11987,505
People per km²1,792645
Museums within 10 km1210
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 Santa Fe 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.