VacationSelector
The opera house on Place de la Comédie, Montpellier
MontpellierThe opera house on Place de la Comédie
Palermo Cathedral, Palermo
PalermoPalermo Cathedral

Photos: Montpellier by Peter, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Palermo by Antonino Giangrasso, Pexels License.

Montpellier 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 Montpellier for

  • getting around
  • families
  • wellness

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

Choose Palermo for

  • culture and sights
  • food and drink
  • beaches

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. Montpellier 64, Palermo 77: Palermo leads by 13 points.
Food & drink. Montpellier 64, Palermo 81: Palermo leads by 17 points.
Culture & sights. Montpellier 60, Palermo 80: Palermo leads by 20 points.
Nightlife. Montpellier 56, Palermo 58: Palermo leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Montpellier and Palermo are level on 72.
Day trips. Montpellier 85, Palermo 84: Montpellier leads by 1 points.
Good for families. Montpellier 62, Palermo 44: Montpellier leads by 18 points.
Getting around. Montpellier 74, Palermo 50: Montpellier leads by 24 points.
Shopping & style. Montpellier 47, Palermo 44: Montpellier leads by 3 points.
Affordability. Montpellier 50, Palermo 63: Palermo leads by 13 points.
Live music & performing arts. Montpellier 63, Palermo 62: Montpellier leads by 1 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Montpellier 42, Palermo 30: Montpellier leads by 12 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Montpellier and Palermo.

Your match

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

Too close to call, level with your weighting

Montpellier
62match

Wins on getting around and families with your weighting.

Palermo
62match

Wins on culture and sights and food and drink with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Montpellier in July

30 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
17 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
21 °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

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
MontpellierPalermo

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. Montpellier: 1991-2020 normals, Montpellier (7.8 km from centre). Palermo: 1991-2020 (sunshine 1961-1990) normals, Palermo / Punta Raisi (24.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMontpellierPalermo
Official languageFrenchItalian
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCE230 V, 50 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation7 m14 m
Main airportMontpellier-Méditerranée Airport (MPL)8 km from centre41 non-stop destinationsFalcone–Borsellino Airport (PMO)25 km from centre106 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureMontpellierPalermo
City population310,240630,167
People per km²5,4523,924
Museums within 10 km1442
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
Swim season, months above 21 °C2 months5 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Montpellier 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.