VacationSelector
The Atomium, Brussels
BrusselsThe Atomium
Palermo Cathedral, Palermo
PalermoPalermo Cathedral

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

Brussels 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 Brussels for

  • getting around
  • shopping
  • families

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

Choose Palermo for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • 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. Brussels 18, Palermo 77: Palermo leads by 59 points.
Food & drink. Brussels 72, Palermo 81: Palermo leads by 9 points.
Culture & sights. Brussels 74, Palermo 80: Palermo leads by 6 points.
Nightlife. Brussels 60, Palermo 58: Brussels leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Brussels 45, Palermo 72: Palermo leads by 27 points.
Day trips. Brussels 89, Palermo 84: Brussels leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Brussels 60, Palermo 44: Brussels leads by 16 points.
Getting around. Brussels 72, Palermo 50: Brussels leads by 22 points.
Shopping & style. Brussels 62, Palermo 44: Brussels leads by 18 points.
Affordability. Brussels 40, Palermo 63: Palermo leads by 23 points.
Live music & performing arts. Brussels 68, Palermo 62: Brussels leads by 6 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Brussels 33, Palermo 30: Brussels leads by 3 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Brussels and Palermo.

Your match

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

Brussels
58match

Wins on getting around and shopping with your weighting.

Palermo
Best match
62match

Wins on beaches and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Brussels in July

23 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
80 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
No seasea
16 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
BrusselsPalermo

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. Brussels: 1991-2020 normals, Uccle (5.2 km from centre). Palermo: 1991-2020 (sunshine 1961-1990) normals, Palermo / Punta Raisi (24.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBrusselsPalermo
Official languageFrench, German, DutchItalian
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCE230 V, 50 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation70 m14 m
Main airportBrussels Airport (BRU)11 km from centre191 non-stop destinationsFalcone–Borsellino Airport (PMO)25 km from centre106 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureBrusselsPalermo
City population195,546630,167
People per km²5,9083,924
Museums within 10 km10642
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km101
Swim season, months above 21 °C-5 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Brussels 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. 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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.