VacationSelector
Wat Xieng Thong temple, Luang Prabang
Luang PrabangWat Xieng Thong temple
Palermo Cathedral, Palermo
PalermoPalermo Cathedral

Photos: Luang Prabang by Basile Morin, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Palermo by Antonino Giangrasso, Pexels License.

Luang Prabang 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 Luang Prabang for

  • wellness
  • prices

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

Choose Palermo for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • day trips

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. Luang Prabang 14, Palermo 77: Palermo leads by 63 points.
Food & drink. Luang Prabang 42, Palermo 81: Palermo leads by 39 points.
Culture & sights. Luang Prabang 65, Palermo 80: Palermo leads by 15 points.
Nightlife. Luang Prabang 8, Palermo 58: Palermo leads by 50 points.
Nature & outdoors. Luang Prabang 68, Palermo 72: Palermo leads by 4 points.
Day trips. Luang Prabang 35, Palermo 84: Palermo leads by 49 points.
Good for families. Luang Prabang 38, Palermo 44: Palermo leads by 6 points.
Getting around. Luang Prabang and Palermo are level on 50.
Shopping & style. Luang Prabang 38, Palermo 44: Palermo leads by 6 points.
Affordability. Luang Prabang 80, Palermo 63: Luang Prabang leads by 17 points.
Live music & performing arts. Luang Prabang 18, Palermo 62: Palermo leads by 44 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Luang Prabang 60, Palermo 30: Luang Prabang leads by 30 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Luang Prabang and Palermo.

Your match

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

Luang Prabang
43match

Wins on wellness and prices with your weighting.

Palermo
Best match
62match

Wins on beaches and nightlife with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Luang Prabang in July

33 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
250 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
No seasea
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

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
Luang PrabangPalermo

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. Luang Prabang: 1991-2020 normals, Luang-Prabang (0.8 km from centre). Palermo: 1991-2020 (sunshine 1961-1990) normals, Palermo / Punta Raisi (24.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLuang PrabangPalermo
Official languageLaoItalian
CurrencyLao Kip (LAK)Euro (EUR)
SocketsABCEF230 V, 50 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+7UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 191, ambulance 195, fire 190112
Elevation305 m14 m
Main airportLuang Phabang International Airport (LPQ)4 km from centre7 non-stop destinationsFalcone–Borsellino Airport (PMO)25 km from centre106 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-13 days

By the numbers

MeasureLuang PrabangPalermo
City population53,792630,167
People per km²-3,924
Museums within 10 km042
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
Swim season, months above 21 °C-5 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Luang Prabang 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. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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.