Catania or Palermo?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Wins on museums & heritage with your weighting.
Wins on sights concentration and beaches & swimming with your weighting.
What matters to you?
Pick a travel style or drag the sliders. The match scores above update as you do.
The verdict
Choose Catania if the trip is built around heritage and getting out of the city: 3 UNESCO-listed places sit within day-trip reach against Palermo's 1, there is more protected land around it, and more attractions near the centre for children.
Choose Palermo if you want to walk to most of what you came for, with far more notable places close to the centre and 13 beaches nearby.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Palermo leads by 9 points.9
| Catania | Palermo | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 58 | 67 |
| Swim season months | 5 | 5 |
| Beaches 10 km | 5 | 13 |
| Coast distance | 1 km | 1 km |
| Water distance | 1 km | 1 km |
Places to eat. Palermo leads by 1 points.1
| Catania | Palermo | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 49 | 50 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 637 | 807 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 14 | 13 |
Museums & heritage. Catania leads by 9 points.9
| Catania | Palermo | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 59 | 50 |
| Museums within 10 km | 34 | 32 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 27 | 26 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 79 | 81 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 3 | 1 |
Nightlife. Palermo leads by 6 points.6
| Catania | Palermo | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 47 | 53 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 537 | 799 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 403 | 515 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 75 | 64 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 18 | 16 |
Nature & day trips. Palermo leads by 5 points.5
| Catania | Palermo | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 31 | 36 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 10 | 4 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 0 | 0 |
| Land share of disc % | 61 | 45 |
| Park area within 2 km | 11 hectares | 63 hectares |
Good for families. Palermo leads by 5 points.5
| Catania | Palermo | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 36 | 41 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 25 | 16 |
| Park area within 2 km | 11 hectares | 63 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 1 | 0 |
Sights concentration. Palermo leads by 18 points.18
| Catania | Palermo | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 39 | 57 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 37 | 104 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Catania and Palermo are level on 68.
| Catania | Palermo | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 68 | 68 |
| Price level global | 64.9 | 64.9 |
| Daily budget | €155 | €155 |
Year-round weather. Catania and Palermo are level on 77.
| Catania | Palermo | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 77 | 77 |
| Monthly daytime high | 15.8 °C to 34.5 °C | 12.6 °C to 27.8 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 9 mm to 83 mm | 4 mm to 71 mm |
| Dry months | 5 | 7 |
Where they differ
Catania holds about as many museums as Palermo, but its heritage reach extends outside the city: 3 UNESCO-listed places within day-trip range against Palermo's 1. That suits a trip with a car and a few days spent away from the streets you sleep on.
Palermo has about three times as many notable places within walking distance of the centre, so more of the day is spent on foot. It also has 13 beaches nearby against Catania's 5, though the sea sits 1km from both centres.
Where they are alike
Weather is where the two sit closest. Both get around 2,600 hours of sun a year, both peak in August and bottom out in January, though Catania runs 16-35°C across the year against Palermo's 13-28°C.
Eating and going out are close too. The range of kitchens is similar, Palermo has somewhat more restaurants and places to drink near its centre, and both keep their nightclubs close in, so evenings work without transport in either.
Which traveller are you?
If your idea of a city break is leaving the hotel and walking, Palermo suits you: about three times as many notable places sit within walking distance of the centre, and more of the drinking is close in too.
If you want museums plus days out, Catania matches Palermo for museums in town and adds 3 UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach, plus more protected land around it for walking away from the streets.
Families divide. Catania has about twice as many attractions near the centre and 1 theme park within reach; Palermo answers with far more park space near the centre and 13 beaches close by.
What the numbers don't tell you
The value comparison between these two carries no information: the figure is a national price level, identical for both by construction, and the €155 a day beside it is one national estimate rather than a measurement of either city. Decide on the other axes.
A strong beach showing hides timing. Palermo's 13 beaches and both cities' warm-sea months fall in July and August, the same weeks everyone else arrives, and Catania's 34-35°C summer highs are what the annual weather picture averages away. Shoulder months trade that heat for rain, up to 67mm in October in Palermo.
When should you go?
The figures behind each month. Each row is shaded against that destination's own year, so the deepest cell is its best month for that measure and the palest its weakest. Shades are not comparable between the two rows.
Temperature and rainfall are thirty-year climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Catania: 1991-2020 normals, Catania / Sigonella (18.9 km from centre). Palermo: 1961-1990 normals, Ustica (66.8 km from centre).
Catania is at its best in spring and early autumn. May brings highs of 26°C with only 18mm of rain, and October holds the same 26°C with the sea still at 23°C. July and August push to 34-35°C, which is a lot for walking.
Palermo's window is high summer, June to September, when highs sit at 24-28°C and July sees just 4mm of rain. Its autumn turns wetter than Catania's, with 67mm in October, and both are wet by December.
Getting there
| Flying from | Catania | Palermo |
|---|---|---|
| MilanMXP, BGY, LIN | 1 h 55 m €45-94 CTA · 4 km | 1 h 45 m €31-110 PMO · 25 km |
| RomeFCO, CIA | 1 h 20 m €38-50 CTA · 4 km | 1 h 10 m €40-52 PMO · 25 km |
| BolognaBLQ | 1 h 40 m €38-100 CTA · 4 km | 1 h 30 m €28-65 PMO · 25 km |
| NaplesNAP | 1 h 5 m €44-56 CTA · 4 km | 1 h 0 m €42-84 PMO · 25 km |
| VeniceVCE, TSF | 1 h 45 m €49-57 CTA · 4 km | 1 h 40 m €29-53 PMO · 25 km |
| VeronaVRN, VBS | 1 h 45 m €72-129 CTA · 4 km | 1 h 40 m no fares PMO · 25 km |
| TurinTRN | 1 h 55 m €37-118 CTA · 4 km | 1 h 45 m €53-76 PMO · 25 km |
| LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2 | 3 h 0 m €106-144 1 stop CTA · 4 km | 2 h 50 m no fares PMO · 25 km |
| New YorkJFK, EWR, LGA | 9 h 15 m no fares CTA · 4 km | 9 h 5 m no fares PMO · 25 km |
| Tel Aviv YafoTLV | 2 h 55 m €157-299 CTA · 4 km | 3 h 10 m €151-346 1 stop PMO · 25 km |
The busiest departure cities for these two, with a place kept for each other part of the world. Busiest means arriving passengers where an official count exists, and where none does, the number of non-stop services flown: official route statistics are published by the European reporting countries and by nobody else, so a table ranked on them alone would offer a reader in New York or Tokyo ten European cities. Flying times are estimated from the distance between airports, and every row is a city flown non-stop to both. Where the typical offer connects anyway, the stops are shown. Under each figure is the airport the flight lands at and how far that is from the centre, because the nearest airport is not always the one a route is flown to. Where both columns name the same airport it is one flight, and the difference between the two is the distance printed beside it. Typical return fares for 2026-08 to 2026-10, cached market data up to 7 days old. The figure is the middle half of the offers found, so a single price means they agreed and a range means they did not; for a typical route that middle half spans about a quarter of the median, and for the least settled routes rather more than the median itself.
Before you go
| Measure | Catania | Palermo |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | Italian | Italian |
| Currency | Euro (EUR) | Euro (EUR) |
| Sockets | CFL230 V, 50 Hz | CFL230 V, 50 Hz |
| Driving side | Right | Right |
| Time zone | UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer | UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer |
| Emergency number | 112 | 112 |
| Elevation | 7 m | 14 m |
| Main airport | Catania-Fontanarossa Airport (CTA)4 km from centre95 non-stop destinations | Falcone–Borsellino Airport (PMO)25 km from centre103 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 13 days | 13 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Catania | Palermo |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 311,584 | 630,167 |
| People per km² | 1,704 | 3,924 |
| Museums within 10 km | 25 | 42 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 3 | 1 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 30 | 33 |
| Swim season, months above 21 °C | 5 months | 5 months |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Catania or Palermo somewhere new.