VacationSelector
Fishing boats in the harbour, La Spezia
La SpeziaFishing boats in the harbour
The beach and the oceanfront hotels from the fishing pier, Virginia Beach
Virginia BeachThe beach and the oceanfront hotels from the fishing pier

Photos: La Spezia by Irina Balashova, Pexels License; Virginia Beach by SchuminWeb, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

La Spezia or Virginia Beach?

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
  • nature and the outdoors
  • day trips

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

Choose Virginia Beach for

  • families
  • beaches
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Virginia Beach’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, Virginia Beach 77: Virginia Beach leads by 17 points.
Food & drink. La Spezia 58, Virginia Beach 42: La Spezia leads by 16 points.
Culture & sights. La Spezia 40, Virginia Beach 30: La Spezia leads by 10 points.
Nightlife. La Spezia 28, Virginia Beach 37: Virginia Beach leads by 9 points.
Nature & outdoors. La Spezia 79, Virginia Beach 56: La Spezia leads by 23 points.
Day trips. La Spezia 87, Virginia Beach 64: La Spezia leads by 23 points.
Good for families. La Spezia 48, Virginia Beach 75: Virginia Beach leads by 27 points.
Getting around. La Spezia 70, Virginia Beach 27: La Spezia leads by 43 points.
Shopping & style. La Spezia 35, Virginia Beach 32: La Spezia leads by 3 points.
Affordability. La Spezia 50, Virginia Beach 40: La Spezia leads by 10 points.
Live music & performing arts. La Spezia 28, Virginia Beach 38: Virginia Beach leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. La Spezia and Virginia Beach are level on 32.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: La Spezia and Virginia Beach.

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 nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Virginia Beach
46match

Wins on families and beaches 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

Virginia Beach in July

31 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
152 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
25 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
La SpeziaVirginia Beach

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). Virginia Beach: 1991-2020 normals, Virginia Beach / Gatewood Park (5.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLa SpeziaVirginia Beach
Official languageItalian-
CurrencyEuro (EUR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCFL230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation3 m7 m
Main airportPisa International Airport (PSA)65 km from centre82 non-stop destinationsNorfolk International Airport (ORF)20 km from centre42 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureLa SpeziaVirginia Beach
City population92,119459,470
People per km²1,792-
Museums within 10 km122
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °C4 months4 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow La Spezia or Virginia Beach 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.