VacationSelector
Fishing boats in the harbour, La Spezia
La SpeziaFishing boats in the harbour
The Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier, Santa Monica
Santa MonicaThe Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier

Photos: La Spezia by Irina Balashova, Pexels License; Santa Monica by Domenico Convertini, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

La Spezia or Santa Monica?

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 Monica for

  • families
  • shopping
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Santa Monica’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 Monica 66: Santa Monica leads by 6 points.
Food & drink. La Spezia 58, Santa Monica 60: Santa Monica leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. La Spezia 40, Santa Monica 35: La Spezia leads by 5 points.
Nightlife. La Spezia 28, Santa Monica 38: Santa Monica leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. La Spezia 79, Santa Monica 72: La Spezia leads by 7 points.
Day trips. La Spezia 87, Santa Monica 64: La Spezia leads by 23 points.
Good for families. La Spezia 48, Santa Monica 70: Santa Monica leads by 22 points.
Getting around. La Spezia 70, Santa Monica 52: La Spezia leads by 18 points.
Shopping & style. La Spezia 35, Santa Monica 56: Santa Monica leads by 21 points.
Affordability. La Spezia 50, Santa Monica 14: La Spezia leads by 36 points.
Live music & performing arts. La Spezia 28, Santa Monica 38: Santa Monica leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. La Spezia 32, Santa Monica 45: Santa Monica leads by 13 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: La Spezia and Santa Monica.

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 Monica
51match

Wins on families and shopping 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 Monica in July

24 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
20 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
La SpeziaSanta Monica

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 Monica: 1991-2020 normals, Los Angeles Airport (13.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLa SpeziaSanta Monica
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 m32 m
Main airportPisa International Airport (PSA)65 km from centre82 non-stop destinationsLos Angeles International Airport (LAX)11 km from centre177 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureLa SpeziaSanta Monica
City population92,11993,076
People per km²1,7924,270
Museums within 10 km1219
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
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 Monica 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.