VacationSelector
Palermo Cathedral, Palermo
PalermoPalermo Cathedral
The lighthouse in the Paphos Archaeological Park, Paphos
PaphosThe lighthouse in the Paphos Archaeological Park

Photos: Palermo by Antonino Giangrasso, Pexels License; Paphos by Nikodem Nijaki, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Palermo or Paphos?

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 Palermo for

  • live music and the arts
  • food and drink
  • nightlife

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

Choose Paphos for

  • families
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Paphos’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. Palermo 77, Paphos 76: Palermo leads by 1 points.
Food & drink. Palermo 81, Paphos 45: Palermo leads by 36 points.
Culture & sights. Palermo 80, Paphos 62: Palermo leads by 18 points.
Nightlife. Palermo 58, Paphos 38: Palermo leads by 20 points.
Nature & outdoors. Palermo 72, Paphos 70: Palermo leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Palermo 84, Paphos 64: Palermo leads by 20 points.
Good for families. Palermo 44, Paphos 68: Paphos leads by 24 points.
Getting around. Palermo 50, Paphos 40: Palermo leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Palermo 44, Paphos 25: Palermo leads by 19 points.
Affordability. Palermo 63, Paphos 52: Palermo leads by 11 points.
Live music & performing arts. Palermo 62, Paphos 22: Palermo leads by 40 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Palermo 30, Paphos 42: Paphos leads by 12 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Palermo and Paphos.

Your match

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

Palermo
Best match
62match

Wins on live music and the arts and food and drink with your weighting.

Paphos
50match

Wins on families and wellness with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

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

Paphos in July

30 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
27 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
PalermoPaphos

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.

Paphos 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.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Palermo: 1991-2020 (sunshine 1961-1990) normals, Palermo / Punta Raisi (24.1 km from centre). Paphos: 1991-2020 normals, Paphos Airport (8.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePalermoPaphos
Official languageItalianTurkish, Greek, Modern Greek
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCFL230 V, 50 HzG240 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+2, UTC+3 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation14 m72 m
Main airportFalcone–Borsellino Airport (PMO)25 km from centre106 non-stop destinationsPaphos International Airport (PFO)8 km from centre58 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days17 days

By the numbers

MeasurePalermoPaphos
City population630,16735,961
People per km²3,9241,987
Museums within 10 km424
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km12
Swim season, months above 21 °C5 months6 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Palermo or Paphos 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.