VacationSelector
A yellow tram in a narrow street, Lisbon
LisbonA yellow tram in a narrow street
Palermo Cathedral, Palermo
PalermoPalermo Cathedral

Photos: Lisbon by Riccardo Toso, Pexels License; Palermo by Antonino Giangrasso, Pexels License.

Lisbon 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 Lisbon for

  • families
  • nightlife
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Lisbon’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. Lisbon 50, Palermo 77: Palermo leads by 27 points.
Food & drink. Lisbon 75, Palermo 81: Palermo leads by 6 points.
Culture & sights. Lisbon 78, Palermo 80: Palermo leads by 2 points.
Nightlife. Lisbon 75, Palermo 58: Lisbon leads by 17 points.
Nature & outdoors. Lisbon 75, Palermo 72: Lisbon leads by 3 points.
Day trips. Lisbon 82, Palermo 84: Palermo leads by 2 points.
Good for families. Lisbon 62, Palermo 44: Lisbon leads by 18 points.
Getting around. Lisbon 66, Palermo 50: Lisbon leads by 16 points.
Shopping & style. Lisbon 60, Palermo 44: Lisbon leads by 16 points.
Affordability. Lisbon 55, Palermo 63: Palermo leads by 8 points.
Live music & performing arts. Lisbon 60, Palermo 62: Palermo leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Lisbon 36, Palermo 30: Lisbon leads by 6 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Lisbon
Best match
65match

Wins on families and nightlife with your weighting.

Palermo
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.

Lisbon in July

28 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
3 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
18 °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
LisbonPalermo

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. Lisbon: 1991-2020 normals, Lisboa / Geof (1.1 km from centre). Palermo: 1991-2020 (sunshine 1961-1990) normals, Palermo / Punta Raisi (24.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLisbonPalermo
Official languagePortugueseItalian
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation100 m14 m
Main airportLisbon Humberto Delgado Airport (LIS)7 km from centre156 non-stop destinationsFalcone–Borsellino Airport (PMO)25 km from centre106 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureLisbonPalermo
City population545,796630,167
People per km²5,4533,924
Museums within 10 km8042
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km31
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 Lisbon 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.