VacationSelector
A classic car in front of the Capitolio, Havana
HavanaA classic car in front of the Capitolio
Palermo Cathedral, Palermo
PalermoPalermo Cathedral

Photos: Havana by AXP Photography, Pexels License; Palermo by Antonino Giangrasso, Pexels License.

Havana 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 Havana for

  • live music and the arts
  • nightlife

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

Choose Palermo for

  • day trips
  • food and drink
  • nature and the outdoors

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. Havana 64, Palermo 77: Palermo leads by 13 points.
Food & drink. Havana 40, Palermo 81: Palermo leads by 41 points.
Culture & sights. Havana 77, Palermo 80: Palermo leads by 3 points.
Nightlife. Havana 60, Palermo 58: Havana leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Havana 34, Palermo 72: Palermo leads by 38 points.
Day trips. Havana 38, Palermo 84: Palermo leads by 46 points.
Good for families. Havana 34, Palermo 44: Palermo leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Havana 38, Palermo 50: Palermo leads by 12 points.
Shopping & style. Havana 30, Palermo 44: Palermo leads by 14 points.
Affordability. Havana 58, Palermo 63: Palermo leads by 5 points.
Live music & performing arts. Havana 74, Palermo 62: Havana leads by 12 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Havana 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: Havana and Palermo.

Your match

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

Havana
47match

Wins on live music and the arts and nightlife with your weighting.

Palermo
Best match
62match

Wins on day trips 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.

Havana in July

32 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
118 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
29 °Csea
13 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

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
HavanaPalermo

Where the figures come from

Havana 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 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. Havana: 1991-2020 normals, Casa Blanca, La Habana (3.5 km from centre). Palermo: 1991-2020 (sunshine 1961-1990) normals, Palermo / Punta Raisi (24.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureHavanaPalermo
Official languageSpanishItalian
CurrencyCuban Peso (CUP)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 106, ambulance 104, fire 105112
Elevation59 m14 m
Main airportJosé Martí International Airport (HAV)17 km from centre21 non-stop destinationsFalcone–Borsellino Airport (PMO)25 km from centre106 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureHavanaPalermo
City population2,492,618630,167
People per km²3,4233,924
Museums within 10 km1242
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months5 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Havana 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). 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). 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. Price level from World Bank open data (PPP conversion factor for private consumption and official exchange rate), CC BY 4.0. 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.