VacationSelector
The cathedral from the gardens, Malaga
MalagaThe cathedral from the gardens
Palermo Cathedral, Palermo
PalermoPalermo Cathedral

Photos: Malaga by Holger Uwe Schmitt, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Palermo by Antonino Giangrasso, Pexels License.

Malaga 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 Malaga for

  • families
  • getting around
  • wellness

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

Choose Palermo for

  • live music and the arts
  • culture and sights
  • 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. Malaga and Palermo are level on 77.
Food & drink. Malaga 68, Palermo 81: Palermo leads by 13 points.
Culture & sights. Malaga 65, Palermo 80: Palermo leads by 15 points.
Nightlife. Malaga 62, Palermo 58: Malaga leads by 4 points.
Nature & outdoors. Malaga 73, Palermo 72: Malaga leads by 1 points.
Day trips. Malaga 87, Palermo 84: Malaga leads by 3 points.
Good for families. Malaga 70, Palermo 44: Malaga leads by 26 points.
Getting around. Malaga 70, Palermo 50: Malaga leads by 20 points.
Shopping & style. Malaga 55, Palermo 44: Malaga leads by 11 points.
Affordability. Malaga 55, Palermo 63: Palermo leads by 8 points.
Live music & performing arts. Malaga 45, Palermo 62: Palermo leads by 17 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Malaga 42, Palermo 30: Malaga leads by 12 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Malaga and Palermo.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Malaga
64match

Wins on families and getting around with your weighting.

Palermo
62match

Wins on live music and the arts and culture and sights with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Malaga in July

31 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
22 °Csea
14 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

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
MalagaPalermo

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. Malaga: 1991-2020 normals, Malaga / Aeropuerto (8.2 km from centre). Palermo: 1991-2020 (sunshine 1961-1990) normals, Palermo / Punta Raisi (24.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMalagaPalermo
Official languageSpanishItalian
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation18 m14 m
Main airportMálaga-Costa del Sol Airport (AGP)8 km from centre166 non-stop destinationsFalcone–Borsellino Airport (PMO)25 km from centre106 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureMalagaPalermo
City population599,063630,167
People per km²1,5173,924
Museums within 10 km3242
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 Malaga 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.