VacationSelector
The Anshun Bridge over the Jin River, Chengdu
ChengduThe Anshun Bridge over the Jin River
Palermo Cathedral, Palermo
PalermoPalermo Cathedral

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

Chengdu 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 Chengdu for

  • wellness
  • getting around
  • families

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

Choose Palermo for

  • beaches
  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts

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. Chengdu 5, Palermo 77: Palermo leads by 72 points.
Food & drink. Chengdu 86, Palermo 81: Chengdu leads by 5 points.
Culture & sights. Chengdu 60, Palermo 80: Palermo leads by 20 points.
Nightlife. Chengdu 68, Palermo 58: Chengdu leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. Chengdu 68, Palermo 72: Palermo leads by 4 points.
Day trips. Chengdu 80, Palermo 84: Palermo leads by 4 points.
Good for families. Chengdu 65, Palermo 44: Chengdu leads by 21 points.
Getting around. Chengdu 74, Palermo 50: Chengdu leads by 24 points.
Shopping & style. Chengdu 64, Palermo 44: Chengdu leads by 20 points.
Affordability. Chengdu 80, Palermo 63: Chengdu leads by 17 points.
Live music & performing arts. Chengdu 50, Palermo 62: Palermo leads by 12 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Chengdu 58, Palermo 30: Chengdu leads by 28 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Chengdu and Palermo.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Chengdu
63match

Wins on wellness and getting around with your weighting.

Palermo
62match

Wins on beaches and culture and sights with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Chengdu in July

31 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
177 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
No seasea
14 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°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
ChengduPalermo

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. Chengdu: 1991-2020 normals, Chengdu (4.5 km from centre). Palermo: 1991-2020 (sunshine 1961-1990) normals, Palermo / Punta Raisi (24.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureChengduPalermo
Official languagePutonghuaItalian
CurrencyYuan Renminbi (CNY)Euro (EUR)
SocketsACI220 V, 50 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+8UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 110, ambulance 120, fire 119112
Elevation500 m14 m
Main airportChengdu Shuangliu International Airport (CTU)16 km from centre77 non-stop destinationsFalcone–Borsellino Airport (PMO)25 km from centre106 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year6 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureChengduPalermo
City population20,937,757630,167
People per km²1,4563,924
Museums within 10 km1042
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
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 Chengdu 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). 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. 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.