VacationSelector
The Parthenon on the Acropolis, Athens
AthensThe Parthenon on the Acropolis
Palermo Cathedral, Palermo
PalermoPalermo Cathedral

Photos: Athens by Ranjeet Kumar Singh, Pexels License; Palermo by Antonino Giangrasso, Pexels License.

Athens or Palermo?

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 Athens for

  • nightlife
  • getting around
  • families

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

Choose Palermo for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • beaches
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Palermo’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. Athens 70, Palermo 77: Palermo leads by 7 points.
Food & drink. Athens 78, Palermo 81: Palermo leads by 3 points.
Culture & sights. Athens 88, Palermo 80: Athens leads by 8 points.
Nightlife. Athens 80, Palermo 58: Athens leads by 22 points.
Nature & outdoors. Athens 64, Palermo 72: Palermo leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Athens 85, Palermo 84: Athens leads by 1 points.
Good for families. Athens 58, Palermo 44: Athens leads by 14 points.
Getting around. Athens 66, Palermo 50: Athens leads by 16 points.
Shopping & style. Athens 55, Palermo 44: Athens leads by 11 points.
Affordability. Athens 56, Palermo 63: Palermo leads by 7 points.
Live music & performing arts. Athens 64, Palermo 62: Athens leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Athens 42, Palermo 30: Athens leads by 12 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Athens and Palermo.

Your match

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

Athens
Best match
67match

Wins on nightlife and getting around with your weighting.

Palermo
62match

Wins on nature and the outdoors 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.

Athens in July

34 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
7 mmrain in the month
13 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Palermo in July

29 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
2 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
26 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
AthensPalermo

Where the figures come from

Palermo 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.

Palermo's sunshine is measured 67 km from the centre, at Ustica.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Athens: 1991-2020 normals, Athens / Athenai / Pláka (2.2 km from centre). Palermo: 1991-2020 (sunshine 1961-1990) normals, Palermo / Punta Raisi (24.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAthensPalermo
Official languageGreekItalian
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+2, UTC+3 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation74 m14 m
Main airportAthens Eleftherios Venizelos International Airport (ATH)20 km from centre173 non-stop destinationsFalcone–Borsellino Airport (PMO)25 km from centre106 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year15 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureAthensPalermo
City population643,452630,167
People per km²16,4993,924
Museums within 10 km8842
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
Swim season, months above 21 °C5 months5 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Athens or Palermo 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.