VacationSelector
The Casino de Monte-Carlo, Monaco
MonacoThe Casino de Monte-Carlo
Palermo Cathedral, Palermo
PalermoPalermo Cathedral

Photos: Monaco by otterboris, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Palermo by Antonino Giangrasso, Pexels License.

Monaco 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 Monaco for

  • getting around
  • wellness
  • families

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

Choose Palermo for

  • prices
  • 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. Monaco 68, Palermo 77: Palermo leads by 9 points.
Food & drink. Monaco 57, Palermo 81: Palermo leads by 24 points.
Culture & sights. Monaco 55, Palermo 80: Palermo leads by 25 points.
Nightlife. Monaco 48, Palermo 58: Palermo leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. Monaco 70, Palermo 72: Palermo leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Monaco and Palermo are level on 84.
Good for families. Monaco 60, Palermo 44: Monaco leads by 16 points.
Getting around. Monaco 78, Palermo 50: Monaco leads by 28 points.
Shopping & style. Monaco 52, Palermo 44: Monaco leads by 8 points.
Affordability. Monaco 3, Palermo 63: Palermo leads by 60 points.
Live music & performing arts. Monaco 63, Palermo 62: Monaco leads by 1 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Monaco 55, Palermo 30: Monaco leads by 25 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Monaco
58match

Wins on getting around and wellness with your weighting.

Palermo
Best match
62match

Wins on prices 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.

Monaco in July

28 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
13 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
24 °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

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
MonacoPalermo

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. Monaco: 1991-2020 normals, Nice (19.9 km from centre). Palermo: 1991-2020 (sunshine 1961-1990) normals, Palermo / Punta Raisi (24.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMonacoPalermo
Official languageFrenchItalian
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCEF230 V, 50 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation68 m14 m
Main airportNice-Côte d'Azur Airport (NCE)18 km from centre130 non-stop destinationsFalcone–Borsellino Airport (PMO)25 km from centre106 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureMonacoPalermo
City population38,857630,167
People per km²18,5033,924
Museums within 10 km1442
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
Swim season, months above 21 °C4 months5 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Monaco or Palermo somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national 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). 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. Price level from World Bank open data (PPP conversion factor for private consumption and official exchange rate), 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.