VacationSelector
The Massachusetts State House, Boston
BostonThe Massachusetts State House
Palermo Cathedral, Palermo
PalermoPalermo Cathedral

Photos: Boston by Ajay Suresh, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Palermo by Antonino Giangrasso, Pexels License.

Boston 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 Boston for

  • families
  • getting around
  • shopping

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

Choose Palermo for

  • prices
  • beaches
  • food and drink

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. Boston 35, Palermo 77: Palermo leads by 42 points.
Food & drink. Boston 64, Palermo 81: Palermo leads by 17 points.
Culture & sights. Boston 72, Palermo 80: Palermo leads by 8 points.
Nightlife. Boston 47, Palermo 58: Palermo leads by 11 points.
Nature & outdoors. Boston 60, Palermo 72: Palermo leads by 12 points.
Day trips. Boston 72, Palermo 84: Palermo leads by 12 points.
Good for families. Boston 72, Palermo 44: Boston leads by 28 points.
Getting around. Boston 70, Palermo 50: Boston leads by 20 points.
Shopping & style. Boston 55, Palermo 44: Boston leads by 11 points.
Affordability. Boston 18, Palermo 63: Palermo leads by 45 points.
Live music & performing arts. Boston 72, Palermo 62: Boston leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Boston and Palermo are level on 30.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Boston and Palermo.

Your match

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

Boston
56match

Wins on families and getting around with your weighting.

Palermo
Best match
62match

Wins on prices 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.

Boston in July

28 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
82 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
18 °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

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
BostonPalermo

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. Boston: 1991-2020 normals, Boston Logan International (3.5 km from centre). Palermo: 1991-2020 (sunshine 1961-1990) normals, Palermo / Punta Raisi (24.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBostonPalermo
Official language-Italian
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation43 m14 m
Main airportBoston Logan International Airport (BOS)4 km from centre144 non-stop destinationsFalcone–Borsellino Airport (PMO)25 km from centre106 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureBostonPalermo
City population675,647630,167
People per km²2,9103,924
Museums within 10 km5142
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone5 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Boston 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). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.