VacationSelector
The Jet d'Eau and a lake boat, Geneva
GenevaThe Jet d'Eau and a lake boat
Palermo Cathedral, Palermo
PalermoPalermo Cathedral

Photos: Geneva by Diviosen, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Palermo by Antonino Giangrasso, Pexels License.

Geneva 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 Geneva for

  • getting around
  • wellness
  • shopping

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

Choose Palermo for

  • prices
  • beaches
  • food and drink

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. Geneva 45, Palermo 77: Palermo leads by 32 points.
Food & drink. Geneva 55, Palermo 81: Palermo leads by 26 points.
Culture & sights. Geneva 58, Palermo 80: Palermo leads by 22 points.
Nightlife. Geneva 38, Palermo 58: Palermo leads by 20 points.
Nature & outdoors. Geneva 82, Palermo 72: Geneva leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Geneva 80, Palermo 84: Palermo leads by 4 points.
Good for families. Geneva 57, Palermo 44: Geneva leads by 13 points.
Getting around. Geneva 86, Palermo 50: Geneva leads by 36 points.
Shopping & style. Geneva 68, Palermo 44: Geneva leads by 24 points.
Affordability. Geneva 5, Palermo 63: Palermo leads by 58 points.
Live music & performing arts. Geneva 60, Palermo 62: Palermo leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Geneva 55, Palermo 30: Geneva leads by 25 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Geneva
57match

Wins on getting around and wellness with your weighting.

Palermo
Best match
62match

Wins on prices and beaches with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Geneva in July

27 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
77 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
No seasea
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

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
GenevaPalermo

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. Geneva: 1991-2020 normals, Geneve-Cointrin (5.7 km from centre). Palermo: 1991-2020 (sunshine 1961-1990) normals, Palermo / Punta Raisi (24.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureGenevaPalermo
Official languageFrench, German, Italian, RomanshItalian
CurrencySwiss Franc (CHF)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCJ230 V, 50 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation403 m14 m
Main airportGeneva International Airport (GVA)5 km from centre150 non-stop destinationsFalcone–Borsellino Airport (PMO)25 km from centre106 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureGenevaPalermo
City population211,152630,167
People per km²13,2803,924
Museums within 10 km3442
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
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 Geneva or Palermo somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national 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). 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. 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.