VacationSelector
The fountain on Plaza Mayor, Lima
LimaThe fountain on Plaza Mayor
Palermo Cathedral, Palermo
PalermoPalermo Cathedral

Photos: Lima by James C., CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Palermo by Antonino Giangrasso, Pexels License.

Lima 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 Lima for

  • shopping
  • food and drink
  • prices

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

Choose Palermo for

  • day trips
  • beaches
  • 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. Lima 42, Palermo 77: Palermo leads by 35 points.
Food & drink. Lima 88, Palermo 81: Lima leads by 7 points.
Culture & sights. Lima 66, Palermo 80: Palermo leads by 14 points.
Nightlife. Lima 62, Palermo 58: Lima leads by 4 points.
Nature & outdoors. Lima 45, Palermo 72: Palermo leads by 27 points.
Day trips. Lima 34, Palermo 84: Palermo leads by 50 points.
Good for families. Lima 42, Palermo 44: Palermo leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Lima 35, Palermo 50: Palermo leads by 15 points.
Shopping & style. Lima 52, Palermo 44: Lima leads by 8 points.
Affordability. Lima 70, Palermo 63: Lima leads by 7 points.
Live music & performing arts. Lima 53, Palermo 62: Palermo leads by 9 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Lima 25, Palermo 30: Palermo leads by 5 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Lima and Palermo.

Your match

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

Lima
51match

Wins on shopping and food and drink with your weighting.

Palermo
Best match
62match

Wins on day trips 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.

Lima in July

19 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
1 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
12 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

020406080JFMAMJJASOND
LimaPalermo

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. Lima: 1991-2020 normals, Lima-Callao / Aerop. Internacional Jorgechavez (10.9 km from centre). Palermo: 1991-2020 (sunshine 1961-1990) normals, Palermo / Punta Raisi (24.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLimaPalermo
Official languageSpanish, Aymara, QuechuaItalian
CurrencySol (PEN)Euro (EUR)
SocketsABC220 V, 60 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number111 or 911112
Elevation154 m14 m
Main airportJorge Chávez International Airport (LIM)9 km from centre61 non-stop destinationsFalcone–Borsellino Airport (PMO)25 km from centre106 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureLimaPalermo
City population9,943,800630,167
People per km²3,7213,924
Museums within 10 km4742
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
Swim season, months above 21 °C2 months5 months

Where else could you go?

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