VacationSelector
The Fisherman's Bastion, Budapest
BudapestThe Fisherman's Bastion
Palermo Cathedral, Palermo
PalermoPalermo Cathedral

Photos: Budapest by Perituss, CC0; Palermo by Antonino Giangrasso, Pexels License.

Budapest 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 Budapest for

  • wellness
  • getting around
  • nightlife

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

Choose Palermo for

  • beaches
  • food and drink
  • day trips

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. Budapest 25, Palermo 77: Palermo leads by 52 points.
Food & drink. Budapest 63, Palermo 81: Palermo leads by 18 points.
Culture & sights. Budapest and Palermo are level on 80.
Nightlife. Budapest 78, Palermo 58: Budapest leads by 20 points.
Nature & outdoors. Budapest 58, Palermo 72: Palermo leads by 14 points.
Day trips. Budapest 68, Palermo 84: Palermo leads by 16 points.
Good for families. Budapest 62, Palermo 44: Budapest leads by 18 points.
Getting around. Budapest 78, Palermo 50: Budapest leads by 28 points.
Shopping & style. Budapest 55, Palermo 44: Budapest leads by 11 points.
Affordability. Budapest 62, Palermo 63: Palermo leads by 1 points.
Live music & performing arts. Budapest 76, Palermo 62: Budapest leads by 14 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Budapest 98, Palermo 30: Budapest leads by 68 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Budapest and Palermo.

Your match

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

Budapest
Best match
67match

Wins on wellness and getting around with your weighting.

Palermo
62match

Wins on beaches and food and drink with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Budapest in July

27 °Cdaytime high
17 °Cnight-time low
75 mmrain in the month
10 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

020406080JFMAMJJASOND
BudapestPalermo

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. Budapest: 1991-2020 normals, Budapest Met Center (2.1 km from centre). Palermo: 1991-2020 (sunshine 1961-1990) normals, Palermo / Punta Raisi (24.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBudapestPalermo
Official languageHungarianItalian
CurrencyForint (HUF)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
Elevation117 m14 m
Main airportBudapest Liszt Ferenc International Airport (BUD)18 km from centre157 non-stop destinationsFalcone–Borsellino Airport (PMO)25 km from centre106 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureBudapestPalermo
City population1,675,777630,167
People per km²3,1913,924
Museums within 10 km8142
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
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 Budapest 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). 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. 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.

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.