VacationSelector
Fishing boats in the harbour, La Spezia
La SpeziaFishing boats in the harbour
The terrace on Cerro Santa Lucía, Santiago
SantiagoThe terrace on Cerro Santa Lucía

Photos: La Spezia by Irina Balashova, Pexels License; Santiago by Rjcastillo, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

La Spezia or Santiago?

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
  • getting around

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

Choose Santiago for

  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Santiago’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, Santiago 12: La Spezia leads by 48 points.
Food & drink. La Spezia 58, Santiago 60: Santiago leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. La Spezia 40, Santiago 52: Santiago leads by 12 points.
Nightlife. La Spezia 28, Santiago 60: Santiago leads by 32 points.
Nature & outdoors. La Spezia 79, Santiago 83: Santiago leads by 4 points.
Day trips. La Spezia 87, Santiago 70: La Spezia leads by 17 points.
Good for families. La Spezia 48, Santiago 57: Santiago leads by 9 points.
Getting around. La Spezia 70, Santiago 68: La Spezia leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. La Spezia 35, Santiago 52: Santiago leads by 17 points.
Affordability. La Spezia 50, Santiago 58: Santiago leads by 8 points.
Live music & performing arts. La Spezia 28, Santiago 55: Santiago leads by 27 points.
Wellness & relaxation. La Spezia 32, Santiago 37: Santiago leads by 5 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: La Spezia and Santiago.

Your match

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

La Spezia
51match

Wins on beaches and day trips with your weighting.

Santiago
Best match
55match

Wins on nightlife 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

Santiago in July

14 °Cdaytime high
4 °Cnight-time low
52 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
No seasea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
La SpeziaSantiago

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). Santiago: 1991-2020 normals, Santiago Q. Normal (3.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLa SpeziaSantiago
Official languageItalianSpanish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Chilean Peso (CLP)
SocketsCFL230 V, 50 HzCL220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-4, UTC-3 in summer
Emergency number112Police 133/134, ambulance 131, fire 132
Elevation3 m575 m
Main airportPisa International Airport (PSA)65 km from centre82 non-stop destinationsComodoro Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport (SCL)14 km from centre67 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureLa SpeziaSantiago
City population92,1196,257,516
People per km²1,7927,468
Museums within 10 km1254
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 Santiago 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.