VacationSelector
Fishing boats in the harbour, La Spezia
La SpeziaFishing boats in the harbour
A painted funicular on the hillside, Valparaiso
ValparaisoA painted funicular on the hillside

Photos: La Spezia by Irina Balashova, Pexels License; Valparaiso by Maclemo, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

La Spezia or Valparaiso?

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

  • getting around
  • beaches
  • day trips

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

Choose Valparaiso for

  • nightlife
  • culture and sights
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Valparaiso’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, Valparaiso 36: La Spezia leads by 24 points.
Food & drink. La Spezia 58, Valparaiso 50: La Spezia leads by 8 points.
Culture & sights. La Spezia 40, Valparaiso 62: Valparaiso leads by 22 points.
Nightlife. La Spezia 28, Valparaiso 56: Valparaiso leads by 28 points.
Nature & outdoors. La Spezia 79, Valparaiso 60: La Spezia leads by 19 points.
Day trips. La Spezia 87, Valparaiso 63: La Spezia leads by 24 points.
Good for families. La Spezia 48, Valparaiso 33: La Spezia leads by 15 points.
Getting around. La Spezia 70, Valparaiso 44: La Spezia leads by 26 points.
Shopping & style. La Spezia 35, Valparaiso 30: La Spezia leads by 5 points.
Affordability. La Spezia 50, Valparaiso 60: Valparaiso leads by 10 points.
Live music & performing arts. La Spezia 28, Valparaiso 38: Valparaiso leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. La Spezia 32, Valparaiso 18: La Spezia leads by 14 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: La Spezia and Valparaiso.

Your match

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

La Spezia
Best match
51match

Wins on getting around and beaches with your weighting.

Valparaiso
46match

Wins on nightlife and culture and sights 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

Valparaiso in July

15 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
71 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
13 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
La SpeziaValparaiso

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.

Valparaiso 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). Valparaiso: 2010-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Viña Del Mar / Montemar (17 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLa SpeziaValparaiso
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 m21 m
Main airportPisa International Airport (PSA)65 km from centre82 non-stop destinationsComodoro Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport (SCL)87 km from centre67 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureLa SpeziaValparaiso
City population92,119296,655
People per km²1,7926,180
Museums within 10 km1217
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 Valparaiso 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.