VacationSelector
The Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque, Muscat
MuscatThe Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque
Palermo Cathedral, Palermo
PalermoPalermo Cathedral

Photos: Muscat by Alli Khalil, CC BY 4.0, cropped; Palermo by Antonino Giangrasso, Pexels License.

Muscat 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 Muscat for

  • wellness
  • families

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

Choose Palermo for

  • nightlife
  • food and drink
  • getting around

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. Muscat 72, Palermo 77: Palermo leads by 5 points.
Food & drink. Muscat 44, Palermo 81: Palermo leads by 37 points.
Culture & sights. Muscat 55, Palermo 80: Palermo leads by 25 points.
Nightlife. Muscat 14, Palermo 58: Palermo leads by 44 points.
Nature & outdoors. Muscat 70, Palermo 72: Palermo leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Muscat 62, Palermo 84: Palermo leads by 22 points.
Good for families. Muscat 52, Palermo 44: Muscat leads by 8 points.
Getting around. Muscat 20, Palermo 50: Palermo leads by 30 points.
Shopping & style. Muscat 42, Palermo 44: Palermo leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Muscat 45, Palermo 63: Palermo leads by 18 points.
Live music & performing arts. Muscat 40, Palermo 62: Palermo leads by 22 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Muscat 55, Palermo 30: Muscat leads by 25 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Muscat and Palermo.

Your match

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

Muscat
48match

Wins on wellness and families with your weighting.

Palermo
Best match
62match

Wins on nightlife 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.

Muscat in July

33 °Cdaytime high
30 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
31 °Csea
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

020406080JFMAMJJASOND
MuscatPalermo

Where the figures come from

Muscat's sunshine is measured 32 km from the centre, at Seeb, International Airport.

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. Muscat: 1991-2020 normals, Qaboos Port (3.4 km from centre). Palermo: 1991-2020 (sunshine 1961-1990) normals, Palermo / Punta Raisi (24.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMuscatPalermo
Official languageArabicItalian
CurrencyRial Omani (OMR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCG240 V, 50 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+4UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number968112
Elevation69 m14 m
Main airportMuscat International Airport (MCT)31 km from centre83 non-stop destinationsFalcone–Borsellino Airport (PMO)25 km from centre106 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-13 days

By the numbers

MeasureMuscatPalermo
City population1,421,409630,167
People per km²4063,924
Museums within 10 km1042
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months5 months

Where else could you go?

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