VacationSelector
The junk Duk Ling in Victoria Harbour, Hong Kong
Hong KongThe junk Duk Ling in Victoria Harbour
Palermo Cathedral, Palermo
PalermoPalermo Cathedral

Photos: Hong Kong by LN9267, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Palermo by Antonino Giangrasso, Pexels License.

Hong Kong 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 Hong Kong for

  • getting around
  • shopping
  • families

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

Choose Palermo for

  • prices
  • beaches
  • culture and sights

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. Hong Kong 50, Palermo 77: Palermo leads by 27 points.
Food & drink. Hong Kong 90, Palermo 81: Hong Kong leads by 9 points.
Culture & sights. Hong Kong 60, Palermo 80: Palermo leads by 20 points.
Nightlife. Hong Kong 68, Palermo 58: Hong Kong leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. Hong Kong 80, Palermo 72: Hong Kong leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Hong Kong 68, Palermo 84: Palermo leads by 16 points.
Good for families. Hong Kong 75, Palermo 44: Hong Kong leads by 31 points.
Getting around. Hong Kong 97, Palermo 50: Hong Kong leads by 47 points.
Shopping & style. Hong Kong 88, Palermo 44: Hong Kong leads by 44 points.
Affordability. Hong Kong 27, Palermo 63: Palermo leads by 36 points.
Live music & performing arts. Hong Kong 55, Palermo 62: Palermo leads by 7 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Hong Kong 42, Palermo 30: Hong Kong leads by 12 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Hong Kong
Best match
67match

Wins on getting around and shopping with your weighting.

Palermo
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.

Hong Kong in July

31 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
381 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine 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

0100200300400500JFMAMJJASOND
Hong KongPalermo

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. Hong Kong: 1991-2020 normals, King's Park (4.4 km from centre). Palermo: 1991-2020 (sunshine 1961-1990) normals, Palermo / Punta Raisi (24.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureHong KongPalermo
Official languageStandard ChineseItalian
CurrencyHong Kong Dollar (HKD)Euro (EUR)
SocketsG220 V, 50 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+8UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number999112
Elevation7 m14 m
Main airportHong Kong International Airport (HKG)25 km from centre148 non-stop destinationsFalcone–Borsellino Airport (PMO)25 km from centre106 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year17 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureHong KongPalermo
City population7,413,070630,167
People per km²-3,924
Museums within 10 km3942
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C8 months5 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Hong Kong 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). 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. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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.