VacationSelector
The cathedral and Great St. Martin on the Rhine, Cologne
CologneThe cathedral and Great St. Martin on the Rhine
Palermo Cathedral, Palermo
PalermoPalermo Cathedral

Photos: Cologne by Jörg Braukmann, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Palermo by Antonino Giangrasso, Pexels License.

Cologne 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 Cologne for

  • families
  • getting around
  • wellness

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

Choose Palermo for

  • beaches
  • food and drink
  • 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. Cologne 14, Palermo 77: Palermo leads by 63 points.
Food & drink. Cologne 52, Palermo 81: Palermo leads by 29 points.
Culture & sights. Cologne 67, Palermo 80: Palermo leads by 13 points.
Nightlife. Cologne 66, Palermo 58: Cologne leads by 8 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cologne 56, Palermo 72: Palermo leads by 16 points.
Day trips. Cologne 80, Palermo 84: Palermo leads by 4 points.
Good for families. Cologne 70, Palermo 44: Cologne leads by 26 points.
Getting around. Cologne 74, Palermo 50: Cologne leads by 24 points.
Shopping & style. Cologne 57, Palermo 44: Cologne leads by 13 points.
Affordability. Cologne 46, Palermo 63: Palermo leads by 17 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cologne 68, Palermo 62: Cologne leads by 6 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cologne 50, Palermo 30: Cologne leads by 20 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cologne and Palermo.

Your match

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

Cologne
58match

Wins on families and getting around with your weighting.

Palermo
Best match
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.

Cologne in July

25 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
81 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
ColognePalermo

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. Cologne: 1991-2020 normals, Köln-Stammheim (5.4 km from centre). Palermo: 1991-2020 (sunshine 1961-1990) normals, Palermo / Punta Raisi (24.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureColognePalermo
Official languageGermanItalian
CurrencyEuro (EUR)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
Elevation59 m14 m
Main airportCologne Bonn Airport (CGN)15 km from centre115 non-stop destinationsFalcone–Borsellino Airport (PMO)25 km from centre106 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureColognePalermo
City population1,025,523630,167
People per km²2,5323,924
Museums within 10 km4042
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km31
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 Cologne 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.