VacationSelector
Cloud Gate in Millennium Park, Chicago
ChicagoCloud Gate in Millennium Park
Palermo Cathedral, Palermo
PalermoPalermo Cathedral

Photos: Chicago by Jesus Toledo, Pexels License; Palermo by Antonino Giangrasso, Pexels License.

Chicago 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 Chicago for

  • families
  • shopping
  • getting around

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

Choose Palermo for

  • day trips
  • prices
  • beaches

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. Chicago 50, Palermo 77: Palermo leads by 27 points.
Food & drink. Chicago 80, Palermo 81: Palermo leads by 1 points.
Culture & sights. Chicago 78, Palermo 80: Palermo leads by 2 points.
Nightlife. Chicago 77, Palermo 58: Chicago leads by 19 points.
Nature & outdoors. Chicago 48, Palermo 72: Palermo leads by 24 points.
Day trips. Chicago 42, Palermo 84: Palermo leads by 42 points.
Good for families. Chicago 78, Palermo 44: Chicago leads by 34 points.
Getting around. Chicago 72, Palermo 50: Chicago leads by 22 points.
Shopping & style. Chicago 70, Palermo 44: Chicago leads by 26 points.
Affordability. Chicago 33, Palermo 63: Palermo leads by 30 points.
Live music & performing arts. Chicago 82, Palermo 62: Chicago leads by 20 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Chicago 33, Palermo 30: Chicago leads by 3 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Too close to call, level with your weighting

Chicago
62match

Wins on families and shopping with your weighting.

Palermo
62match

Wins on day trips and prices with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Chicago in July

29 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
102 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
21 °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
ChicagoPalermo

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. Chicago: 1991-2020 normals, Chicago Midway Airport (14.5 km from centre). Palermo: 1991-2020 (sunshine 1961-1990) normals, Palermo / Punta Raisi (24.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureChicagoPalermo
Official language-Italian
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6, UTC-5 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation179 m14 m
Main airportChicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD)25 km from centre274 non-stop destinationsFalcone–Borsellino Airport (PMO)25 km from centre106 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureChicagoPalermo
City population2,746,388630,167
People per km²4,5293,924
Museums within 10 km4442
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
Swim season, months above 21 °C1 month5 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Chicago 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.