VacationSelector
The Sagrada Família, Barcelona
BarcelonaThe Sagrada Família
Palermo Cathedral, Palermo
PalermoPalermo Cathedral

Photos: Barcelona by Canaan, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Palermo by Antonino Giangrasso, Pexels License.

Barcelona 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 Barcelona for

  • families
  • shopping
  • getting around

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

Choose Palermo for

  • prices
  • day trips
  • beaches

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. Barcelona 75, Palermo 77: Palermo leads by 2 points.
Food & drink. Barcelona 82, Palermo 81: Barcelona leads by 1 points.
Culture & sights. Barcelona 86, Palermo 80: Barcelona leads by 6 points.
Nightlife. Barcelona 82, Palermo 58: Barcelona leads by 24 points.
Nature & outdoors. Barcelona and Palermo are level on 72.
Day trips. Barcelona 80, Palermo 84: Palermo leads by 4 points.
Good for families. Barcelona 76, Palermo 44: Barcelona leads by 32 points.
Getting around. Barcelona 80, Palermo 50: Barcelona leads by 30 points.
Shopping & style. Barcelona 75, Palermo 44: Barcelona leads by 31 points.
Affordability. Barcelona 44, Palermo 63: Palermo leads by 19 points.
Live music & performing arts. Barcelona 70, Palermo 62: Barcelona leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Barcelona 38, Palermo 30: Barcelona leads by 8 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Barcelona and Palermo.

Your match

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

Barcelona
Best match
72match

Wins on families and shopping with your weighting.

Palermo
62match

Wins on prices and day trips with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Barcelona in July

28 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
27 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
24 °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°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
BarcelonaPalermo

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. Barcelona: 1991-2020 normals, Barcelona / Aeropuerto (14.4 km from centre). Palermo: 1991-2020 (sunshine 1961-1990) normals, Palermo / Punta Raisi (24.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBarcelonaPalermo
Official languageSpanishItalian
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation9 m14 m
Main airportJosep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat Airport (BCN)13 km from centre235 non-stop destinationsFalcone–Borsellino Airport (PMO)25 km from centre106 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureBarcelonaPalermo
City population1,731,649630,167
People per km²17,0943,924
Museums within 10 km9542
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km31
Swim season, months above 21 °C3 months5 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Barcelona 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.