VacationSelector

La Spezia or Sorrento?

Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.

Your match

La Spezia
✓ Best match
43
match

Wins on nature & day trips and good for families with your weighting.

Sorrento
37
match

Wins on beaches & swimming and sights concentration with your weighting.

What matters to you?

Pick a travel style or drag the sliders. The match scores above update as you do.

The verdict

Choose La Spezia if you want more than the shoreline: a wider range of kitchens, more museums, more protected land and parkland within reach, and more to keep children occupied.

Choose Sorrento if swimming is the main point. It has far more beaches nearby, a longer warm-sea season and slightly warmer days year round, with a tighter cluster of notable places around the centre.

Scoreboard

Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.

La SpeziaSorrento
Beaches & swimming. Sorrento leads by 4 points.4
La SpeziaSorrento
Score7377
Swim season months45
Beaches 10 km3278
Coast distance0 km0 km
Water distance0 km0 km
Places to eat. La Spezia leads by 12 points.12
La SpeziaSorrento
Score3119
Restaurants within 2 km of centre235249
Effective number of cuisines within 2 km115
Museums & heritage. La Spezia leads by 5 points.5
La SpeziaSorrento
Score4237
Museums within 10 km157
Museums within 2 km of centre104
Share of museums within 2 km %6757
Unesco sites within 50 km25
Nightlife. La Spezia leads by 2 points.2
La SpeziaSorrento
Score2422
Drinking venues within 4 km208179
Drinking venues within 2 km of centre176131
Share of drinking venues within 2 km %8573
Nightclubs within 4 km12
Nature & day trips. La Spezia leads by 29 points.29
La SpeziaSorrento
Score5223
Protected land share 50 km %137
Landscape blanket share 50 km %00
Land share of disc %5142
Park area within 2 km23 hectares4 hectares
Good for families. La Spezia leads by 15 points.15
La SpeziaSorrento
Score205
Tourist attractions within 2 km32
Park area within 2 km23 hectares4 hectares
Theme parks within 30 km21
Sights concentration. Sorrento leads by 3 points.3
La SpeziaSorrento
Score710
Notable places within 2 km67
Min wikipedia languages55
Value for money. La Spezia and Sorrento are level on 68.
La SpeziaSorrento
Score6868
Price level global64.964.9
Daily budget€155€155
Year-round weather. Sorrento leads by 3 points.3
La SpeziaSorrento
Score7073
Monthly daytime high11.4 °C to 30.3 °C13.1 °C to 31.4 °C
Monthly rainfall32 mm to 132 mm17 mm to 159 mm
Dry months23
0255075100

Where they differ

La Spezia has roughly as many restaurants near the centre as Sorrento but a much wider range of kitchens, and about twice as many museums, sitting tightly around the centre. Around it, 13% of the land is protected against Sorrento's 7%, with far more park space near the centre, twice as many attractions for children and 2 theme parks within reach against 1.

Sorrento answers with 78 beaches nearby, more notable places within walking distance of the centre, and 5 UNESCO-listed sites within day-trip reach against 2.

Where they are alike

Nightlife is a small part of both. Each has a modest set of bars and clubs, and in both they sit close to the centre rather than spread across town.

Both also sit directly on the water, with the sea 0km from either centre, and share a similar climate, including August highs of 30-31°C and sea temperatures of 25-26°C. Neither has a large walkable concentration of notable places.

Which traveller are you?

Someone who plans the trip around swimming should take Sorrento: 78 beaches within reach, and a longer stretch of the year with sea warm enough to be in. La Spezia's swimming season is shorter.

Families and walkers are better served by La Spezia, with 13% of the surrounding land protected, far more park space near the centre, twice as many attractions and 2 theme parks within reach against Sorrento's 1.

Anyone travelling for food and museums should also pick La Spezia, where the range of kitchens is broader and there are about twice as many museums, though Sorrento reaches more UNESCO-listed places on day trips.

What the numbers don't tell you

The value comparison between these two carries no information. The figure is a national price level, identical for both by construction, and the €155 a day beside it is one national estimate rather than a measured cost in either town. Treat neither as the cheaper trip.

Sorrento's 78 beaches are a count, not a measure of space on them: it is a town of about 15,400 people against La Spezia's 92,100, and its warmest, driest weeks are peak season. The quieter months are also the wettest in both, so calm and comfortable rarely arrive together here.

When should you go?

The figures behind each month. Each row is shaded against that destination's own year, so the deepest cell is its best month for that measure and the palest its weakest. Shades are not comparable between the two rows.

J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D
Daytime high, °C
La Spezia
11
13
16
18
23
27
30
30
26
21
16
12
Sorrento
13
14
16
19
24
28
31
31
28
23
18
14
Sea temperature, °C
La Spezia
14
13
14
15
18
22
24
25
23
20
18
16
Sorrento
15
14
14
16
19
23
25
26
24
22
19
17
Rainfall, mm
La Spezia
68
58
59
65
63
41
32
35
102
125
132
95
Sorrento
89
69
82
73
54
29
17
18
78
92
159
108
Daylight, hours per day
La Spezia
9
10
12
13
15
15
15
14
13
11
10
9
Sorrento
10
11
12
13
14
15
15
14
13
11
10
9
Sunshine, hours per day
La Spezia
4
4
6
6
8
9
11
10
7
5
4
3
Sorrento
4
5
6
7
8
9
11
10
8
6
4
4

Temperature and rainfall are thirty-year climate normals, averaged over the years shown. La Spezia: 1991-2020 normals, Pisa / S. Giusto (64.8 km from centre). Sorrento: 1991-2020 normals, Grazzanise (53.6 km from centre).

WorseBetter

La Spezia is at its best from June to August, when highs run 27-30°C and rain drops to 32mm in July. September is still warm, but rainfall climbs back to 102mm and stays high through the autumn.

Sorrento holds the edge either side of that summer. Its high summer is drier still, at 17-18mm at the peak, and by October it keeps days near 23°C, warm sea and 92mm of rain against La Spezia's heavier autumn. Both turn wet from November into winter.

Getting there

Flying fromLa SpeziaSorrento
LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2
2 h 5 m
€48-62
PSA · 65 km
2 h 35 m
€90-167
1 stop
NAP · 30 km
ParisCDG, ORY, BVA
1 h 40 m
no fares
PSA · 65 km
2 h 10 m
€108-170
NAP · 30 km
PalermoPMO
1 h 25 m
no fares
PSA · 65 km
1 h 0 m
€39-94
NAP · 30 km
RomeFCO, CIA
1 h 10 m
no fares
GOA · 86 km
55 m
no fares
NAP · 30 km
CataniaCTA
1 h 35 m
€55-66
PSA · 65 km
1 h 5 m
€36-65
NAP · 30 km
TiranaTIA
1 h 35 m
no fares
PSA · 65 km
1 h 10 m
no fares
NAP · 30 km
AmsterdamAMS
1 h 55 m
€210-262
1 stop
PSA · 65 km
2 h 25 m
€163-210
1 stop
NAP · 30 km
CagliariCAG
1 h 15 m
no fares
PSA · 65 km
1 h 15 m
no fares
NAP · 30 km
MadridMAD
2 h 5 m
€88-193
PSA · 65 km
2 h 25 m
no fares
NAP · 30 km
Sharm el SheikhSSH
3 h 55 m
no fares
BLQ · 125 km
3 h 25 m
no fares
NAP · 30 km

The busiest departure cities for these two, with a place kept for each other part of the world. Busiest means arriving passengers where an official count exists, and where none does, the number of non-stop services flown: official route statistics are published by the European reporting countries and by nobody else, so a table ranked on them alone would offer a reader in New York or Tokyo ten European cities. Flying times are estimated from the distance between airports, and every row is a city flown non-stop to both. Where the typical offer connects anyway, the stops are shown. Under each figure is the airport the flight lands at and how far that is from the centre, because the nearest airport is not always the one a route is flown to. Where both columns name the same airport it is one flight, and the difference between the two is the distance printed beside it. Typical return fares for 2026-09 to 2026-09, cached market data up to 7 days old. The figure is the middle half of the offers found, so a single price means they agreed and a range means they did not; for a typical route that middle half spans about a quarter of the median, and for the least settled routes rather more than the median itself.

Before you go

MeasureLa SpeziaSorrento
Official languageItalianItalian
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCFL230 V, 50 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation3 m50 m
Main airportPisa International Airport (PSA)65 km from centre81 non-stop destinationsNaples International Airport (NAP)30 km from centre131 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureLa SpeziaSorrento
City population92,11915,407
People per km²1,7921,541
Museums within 10 km125
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km25
Distinct cuisines in the centre2211
Swim season, months above 21 °C4 months5 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow La Spezia or Sorrento somewhere new.

Browse every destination we have measured

Sources

© OpenStreetMap contributors, data available under the Open Database Licence. Place counts include data from Overture Maps Foundation (CDLA Permissive 2.0), assembled from Meta, Microsoft, Foursquare and other providers. Notable-place counts from Wikidata (CC0), weighted by Wikipedia language editions. Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. 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. Typical fares from Travelpayouts (Aviasales data). Route-level air passenger statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates.

Scores follow rubric v2; snapshot generated 2026-08-31. Typical prices can be up to 7 days old. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.