VacationSelector
Colourful shopfronts in the city centre, Cork
CorkColourful shopfronts in the city centre
Palermo Cathedral, Palermo
PalermoPalermo Cathedral

Photos: Cork by Selim Karadayı, Pexels License; Palermo by Antonino Giangrasso, Pexels License.

Cork 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 Cork for

  • getting around
  • families

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

Choose Palermo for

  • beaches
  • culture and sights
  • 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. Cork 25, Palermo 77: Palermo leads by 52 points.
Food & drink. Cork 58, Palermo 81: Palermo leads by 23 points.
Culture & sights. Cork 40, Palermo 80: Palermo leads by 40 points.
Nightlife. Cork 40, Palermo 58: Palermo leads by 18 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cork 62, Palermo 72: Palermo leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Cork 68, Palermo 84: Palermo leads by 16 points.
Good for families. Cork 50, Palermo 44: Cork leads by 6 points.
Getting around. Cork 58, Palermo 50: Cork leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. Cork 40, Palermo 44: Palermo leads by 4 points.
Affordability. Cork 33, Palermo 63: Palermo leads by 30 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cork 45, Palermo 62: Palermo leads by 17 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cork 22, Palermo 30: Palermo leads by 8 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cork and Palermo.

Your match

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

Cork
45match

Wins on getting around and families with your weighting.

Palermo
Best match
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.

Cork in July

19 °Cdaytime high
12 °Cnight-time low
86 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
16 °Csea
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

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
CorkPalermo

Where the figures come from

Cork's station stands 153 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer than the figures say.

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. Cork: 1991-2020 normals, Cork Airport (5.6 km from centre). Palermo: 1991-2020 (sunshine 1961-1990) normals, Palermo / Punta Raisi (24.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCorkPalermo
Official languageEnglish, IrishItalian
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation0 m14 m
Main airportCork International Airport (ORK)7 km from centre47 non-stop destinationsFalcone–Borsellino Airport (PMO)25 km from centre106 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureCorkPalermo
City population222,333630,167
People per km²5,9613,924
Museums within 10 km542
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone5 months

Where else could you go?

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