VacationSelector
Senate Square and the statue of Alexander II, Helsinki
HelsinkiSenate Square and the statue of Alexander II
Palermo Cathedral, Palermo
PalermoPalermo Cathedral

Photos: Helsinki by Ximonic (Simo Räsänen), CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Palermo by Antonino Giangrasso, Pexels License.

Helsinki 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 Helsinki for

  • wellness
  • getting around
  • families

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

Choose Palermo for

  • beaches
  • prices
  • 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. Helsinki 28, Palermo 77: Palermo leads by 49 points.
Food & drink. Helsinki 52, Palermo 81: Palermo leads by 29 points.
Culture & sights. Helsinki 60, Palermo 80: Palermo leads by 20 points.
Nightlife. Helsinki 50, Palermo 58: Palermo leads by 8 points.
Nature & outdoors. Helsinki 58, Palermo 72: Palermo leads by 14 points.
Day trips. Helsinki 62, Palermo 84: Palermo leads by 22 points.
Good for families. Helsinki 76, Palermo 44: Helsinki leads by 32 points.
Getting around. Helsinki 86, Palermo 50: Helsinki leads by 36 points.
Shopping & style. Helsinki 62, Palermo 44: Helsinki leads by 18 points.
Affordability. Helsinki 30, Palermo 63: Palermo leads by 33 points.
Live music & performing arts. Helsinki 63, Palermo 62: Helsinki leads by 1 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Helsinki 82, Palermo 30: Helsinki leads by 52 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Helsinki and Palermo.

Your match

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

Helsinki
59match

Wins on wellness and getting around with your weighting.

Palermo
Best match
62match

Wins on beaches 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.

Helsinki in July

22 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
58 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
16 °Csea
18 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

-10°0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
HelsinkiPalermo

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. Helsinki: 1991-2020 normals, Helsinki Kaisaniemi / Harju (1.6 km from centre). Palermo: 1991-2020 (sunshine 1961-1990) normals, Palermo / Punta Raisi (24.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureHelsinkiPalermo
Official languageFinnish, SwedishItalian
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+2, UTC+3 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation17 m14 m
Main airportHelsinki Vantaa Airport (HEL)16 km from centre136 non-stop destinationsFalcone–Borsellino Airport (PMO)25 km from centre106 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year15 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureHelsinkiPalermo
City population694,392630,167
People per km²3,2393,924
Museums within 10 km7442
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
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 Helsinki 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.