VacationSelector
The Plaza de los Naranjos and its fountain in the old town, Marbella
MarbellaThe Plaza de los Naranjos and its fountain in the old town
Palermo Cathedral, Palermo
PalermoPalermo Cathedral

Photos: Marbella by Décio Franchini, Pexels License; Palermo by Antonino Giangrasso, Pexels License.

Marbella 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 Marbella for

  • families
  • wellness
  • shopping

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

Choose Palermo for

  • culture and sights
  • prices
  • live music and the arts

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. Marbella 76, Palermo 77: Palermo leads by 1 points.
Food & drink. Marbella 60, Palermo 81: Palermo leads by 21 points.
Culture & sights. Marbella 32, Palermo 80: Palermo leads by 48 points.
Nightlife. Marbella 64, Palermo 58: Marbella leads by 6 points.
Nature & outdoors. Marbella 70, Palermo 72: Palermo leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Marbella 77, Palermo 84: Palermo leads by 7 points.
Good for families. Marbella 70, Palermo 44: Marbella leads by 26 points.
Getting around. Marbella 38, Palermo 50: Palermo leads by 12 points.
Shopping & style. Marbella 58, Palermo 44: Marbella leads by 14 points.
Affordability. Marbella 30, Palermo 63: Palermo leads by 33 points.
Live music & performing arts. Marbella 30, Palermo 62: Palermo leads by 32 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Marbella 52, Palermo 30: Marbella leads by 22 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Marbella
55match

Wins on families and wellness with your weighting.

Palermo
Best match
62match

Wins on culture and sights 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.

Marbella in July

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

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
MarbellaPalermo

Where the figures come from

Marbella's temperatures are measured 40 km from the centre, at Malaga / Aeropuerto.

Marbella 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 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. Marbella: 1991-2020 normals, Malaga / Aeropuerto (39.7 km from centre). Palermo: 1991-2020 (sunshine 1961-1990) normals, Palermo / Punta Raisi (24.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMarbellaPalermo
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
Elevation22 m14 m
Main airportMálaga-Costa del Sol Airport (AGP)39 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

MeasureMarbellaPalermo
City population159,786630,167
People per km²1,3983,924
Museums within 10 km642
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
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 Marbella 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.