VacationSelector
The Blue Mosque, Istanbul
IstanbulThe Blue Mosque
Palermo Cathedral, Palermo
PalermoPalermo Cathedral

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

Istanbul 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 Istanbul for

  • wellness
  • shopping
  • nightlife

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

Choose Palermo for

  • beaches
  • day trips
  • 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. Istanbul 45, Palermo 77: Palermo leads by 32 points.
Food & drink. Istanbul 87, Palermo 81: Istanbul leads by 6 points.
Culture & sights. Istanbul 90, Palermo 80: Istanbul leads by 10 points.
Nightlife. Istanbul 77, Palermo 58: Istanbul leads by 19 points.
Nature & outdoors. Istanbul 52, Palermo 72: Palermo leads by 20 points.
Day trips. Istanbul 55, Palermo 84: Palermo leads by 29 points.
Good for families. Istanbul 55, Palermo 44: Istanbul leads by 11 points.
Getting around. Istanbul 62, Palermo 50: Istanbul leads by 12 points.
Shopping & style. Istanbul 86, Palermo 44: Istanbul leads by 42 points.
Affordability. Istanbul 60, Palermo 63: Palermo leads by 3 points.
Live music & performing arts. Istanbul and Palermo are level on 62.
Wellness & relaxation. Istanbul 75, Palermo 30: Istanbul leads by 45 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Istanbul
Best match
67match

Wins on wellness and shopping with your weighting.

Palermo
62match

Wins on beaches and day trips with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Istanbul in July

30 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
23 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
23 °Csea
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

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
IstanbulPalermo

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. Istanbul: 1991-2020 normals, Istanbul / Goztepe (9.9 km from centre). Palermo: 1991-2020 (sunshine 1961-1990) normals, Palermo / Punta Raisi (24.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureIstanbulPalermo
Official languageTurkishItalian
CurrencyTurkish Lira (TRY)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+3UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation100 m14 m
Main airportİstanbul Airport (IST)36 km from centre343 non-stop destinationsFalcone–Borsellino Airport (PMO)25 km from centre106 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureIstanbulPalermo
City population15,655,924630,167
People per km²2,9303,924
Museums within 10 km7342
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
Swim season, months above 21 °C3 months5 months

Where else could you go?

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