Naples or Palermo?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Wins on museums & heritage and sights concentration with your weighting.
Wins on places to eat and year-round weather with your weighting.
What matters to you?
Pick a travel style or drag the sliders. The match scores above update as you do.
The verdict
Choose Naples if the trip is built around museums and historic sites: the heritage is far deeper here, most of it within walking distance of the centre, and there is a wider choice of beaches.
Choose Palermo if you want drier days, a milder summer, more park space near the centre and a broader mix of kitchens, and are content with a smaller set of sights.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Naples leads by 9 points.9
| Naples | Palermo | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 76 | 67 |
| Swim season months | 5 | 5 |
| Beaches 10 km | 29 | 13 |
| Coast distance | 1 km | 1 km |
| Water distance | 1 km | 1 km |
Places to eat. Palermo leads by 4 points.4
| Naples | Palermo | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 46 | 50 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 1,244 | 807 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 7 | 13 |
Museums & heritage. Naples leads by 28 points.28
| Naples | Palermo | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 78 | 50 |
| Museums within 10 km | 84 | 32 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 68 | 26 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 81 | 81 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 5 | 1 |
Nightlife. Naples leads by 13 points.13
| Naples | Palermo | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 66 | 53 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 1,389 | 799 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 964 | 515 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 69 | 64 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 40 | 16 |
Nature & day trips. Naples leads by 1 points.1
| Naples | Palermo | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 37 | 36 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 7 | 4 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 0 | 0 |
| Land share of disc % | 56 | 45 |
| Park area within 2 km | 41 hectares | 63 hectares |
Good for families. Naples and Palermo are level on 41.
| Naples | Palermo | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 41 | 41 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 11 | 16 |
| Park area within 2 km | 41 hectares | 63 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 3 | 0 |
Sights concentration. Naples leads by 21 points.21
| Naples | Palermo | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 78 | 57 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 351 | 104 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Naples and Palermo are level on 68.
| Naples | Palermo | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 68 | 68 |
| Price level global | 64.9 | 64.9 |
| Daily budget | €155 | €155 |
Year-round weather. Palermo leads by 4 points.4
| Naples | Palermo | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 73 | 77 |
| Monthly daytime high | 13.1 °C to 31.4 °C | 12.6 °C to 27.8 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 17 mm to 159 mm | 4 mm to 71 mm |
| Dry months | 3 | 7 |
Where they differ
Naples has about three times as many museums as Palermo, and 5 UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach against Palermo's 1. Around three times as many notable places sit within walking distance of the centre, so more of a visit happens on foot, and there are far more bars and clubs. It also has 29 beaches nearby against 13.
Palermo is drier, with 7 months at 40mm of rain or less against Naples's 3, a wider range of kitchens, and about twice as much park space near the centre.
Where they are alike
Both sit mid-table for families, for different reasons: Palermo has somewhat more attractions and about twice as much park space near the centre, while Naples has 3 theme parks within reach where Palermo has none.
Neither offers much beyond the city itself, with limited protected land around both. Eating out is close in strength, though composed differently, and the weather follows the same shape: both coolest in January at 13°C, both warmest in August.
Which traveller are you?
If museums and historic sites drive the trip, take Naples: about three times as many museums, 5 UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach against 1, and enough packed into the centre to fill several days on foot.
For dry warmth and swimming, Palermo is the steadier choice: fewer beaches, 13 against Naples's 29, but far less rain across the year and a summer that tops out milder.
Travelling with children, neither city is built for it. Naples has 3 theme parks within reach; Palermo has none, but offers more attractions and about twice as much park space near the centre.
What the numbers don't tell you
The value comparison here carries no information: that figure is a national price level, identical for both by construction, so it cannot tell you which city costs less. The daily budget of €155 is one national estimate rather than a measurement of either place.
Naples's beach advantage is a count, 29 against 13, and counts say nothing about how busy any of them are in July and August, the months everything else points to. The sea is 1km from both centres, which is a distance, not a description of the water. Naples's warmer year also brings heavier rain outside summer, so warmer and drier pull apart here.
When should you go?
The figures behind each month. Each row is shaded against that destination's own year, so the deepest cell is its best month for that measure and the palest its weakest. Shades are not comparable between the two rows.
Temperature and rainfall are thirty-year climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Naples: 1991-2020 normals, Grazzanise (28.3 km from centre). Palermo: 1961-1990 normals, Ustica (66.8 km from centre).
Naples runs warmer earlier, so May suits it, at 24°C with the sea warming, and June brings 28°C with rain down to 29mm. Autumn turns wet, with 78mm in September and 92mm in October, and November wetter still.
Palermo is the better bet in high summer, topping out at 28°C rather than Naples's 31°C, with sea at 27°C in August and only 4-11mm of rain in July and August. It is also the drier choice in late autumn and winter.
Getting there
| Flying from | Naples | Palermo |
|---|---|---|
| MilanMXP, BGY, LIN | 1 h 30 m €35-109 NAP · 7 km | 1 h 45 m €31-110 PMO · 25 km |
| RomeFCO, CIA | 55 m no fares NAP · 7 km | 1 h 10 m €40-52 PMO · 25 km |
| LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2 | 2 h 35 m €90-167 1 stop NAP · 7 km | 2 h 50 m no fares PMO · 25 km |
| ParisCDG, ORY, BVA | 2 h 10 m €108-170 NAP · 7 km | 2 h 25 m €101-135 PMO · 25 km |
| VeniceVCE, TSF | 1 h 20 m €39-65 NAP · 7 km | 1 h 40 m €29-53 PMO · 25 km |
| BarcelonaBCN | 1 h 50 m €103-165 1 stop NAP · 7 km | 1 h 50 m €49-107 PMO · 25 km |
| TurinTRN | 1 h 30 m €96-157 1 stop NAP · 7 km | 1 h 45 m €53-76 PMO · 25 km |
| IstanbulIST, SAW | 2 h 5 m €167-197 1 stop NAP · 7 km | 2 h 15 m €183-194 PMO · 25 km |
| Sharm el SheikhSSH | 3 h 25 m no fares NAP · 7 km | 3 h 20 m no fares PMO · 25 km |
| New YorkJFK, EWR, LGA | 9 h 0 m no fares NAP · 7 km | 9 h 5 m no fares PMO · 25 km |
The busiest departure cities for these two, with a place kept for each other part of the world. Busiest means arriving passengers where an official count exists, and where none does, the number of non-stop services flown: official route statistics are published by the European reporting countries and by nobody else, so a table ranked on them alone would offer a reader in New York or Tokyo ten European cities. Flying times are estimated from the distance between airports, and every row is a city flown non-stop to both. Where the typical offer connects anyway, the stops are shown. Under each figure is the airport the flight lands at and how far that is from the centre, because the nearest airport is not always the one a route is flown to. Where both columns name the same airport it is one flight, and the difference between the two is the distance printed beside it. Typical return fares for 2026-09 to 2026-10, cached market data up to 7 days old. The figure is the middle half of the offers found, so a single price means they agreed and a range means they did not; for a typical route that middle half spans about a quarter of the median, and for the least settled routes rather more than the median itself.
Before you go
| Measure | Naples | Palermo |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | Italian | Italian |
| Currency | Euro (EUR) | Euro (EUR) |
| Sockets | CFL230 V, 50 Hz | CFL230 V, 50 Hz |
| Driving side | Right | Right |
| Time zone | UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer | UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer |
| Emergency number | 112 | 112 |
| Elevation | 17 m | 14 m |
| Main airport | Naples International Airport (NAP)7 km from centre131 non-stop destinations | Falcone–Borsellino Airport (PMO)25 km from centre103 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 13 days | 13 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Naples | Palermo |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 913,462 | 630,167 |
| People per km² | 7,676 | 3,924 |
| Museums within 10 km | 65 | 42 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 5 | 1 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 31 | 33 |
| Swim season, months above 21 °C | 5 months | 5 months |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Naples or Palermo somewhere new.