VacationSelector
Palermo Cathedral, Palermo
PalermoPalermo Cathedral
White sand and turquoise water at Pensacola Beach, Pensacola
PensacolaWhite sand and turquoise water at Pensacola Beach

Photos: Palermo by Antonino Giangrasso, Pexels License; Pensacola by Jason Meredith, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Palermo or Pensacola?

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

  • day trips
  • food and drink
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Pensacola for

  • families
  • beaches

What lies behind each score is written up on Pensacola’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, Pensacola 84: Pensacola leads by 7 points.
Food & drink. Palermo 81, Pensacola 45: Palermo leads by 36 points.
Culture & sights. Palermo 80, Pensacola 45: Palermo leads by 35 points.
Nightlife. Palermo 58, Pensacola 42: Palermo leads by 16 points.
Nature & outdoors. Palermo 72, Pensacola 62: Palermo leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Palermo 84, Pensacola 45: Palermo leads by 39 points.
Good for families. Palermo 44, Pensacola 62: Pensacola leads by 18 points.
Getting around. Palermo 50, Pensacola 18: Palermo leads by 32 points.
Shopping & style. Palermo 44, Pensacola 28: Palermo leads by 16 points.
Affordability. Palermo 63, Pensacola 44: Palermo leads by 19 points.
Live music & performing arts. Palermo 62, Pensacola 36: Palermo leads by 26 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Palermo and Pensacola are level on 30.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Palermo and Pensacola.

Your match

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

Palermo
Best match
62match

Wins on day trips and food and drink with your weighting.

Pensacola
45match

Wins on families and beaches 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

Pensacola in July

33 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
200 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
29 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
PalermoPensacola

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. Palermo: 1991-2020 (sunshine 1961-1990) normals, Palermo / Punta Raisi (24.1 km from centre). Pensacola: 1991-2020 normals, Pensacola / Pleasant Grove (12.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePalermoPensacola
Official languageItalian-
CurrencyEuro (EUR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCFL230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-6, UTC-5 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation14 m31 m
Main airportFalcone–Borsellino Airport (PMO)25 km from centre106 non-stop destinationsPensacola International Airport (PNS)6 km from centre27 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasurePalermoPensacola
City population630,16754,312
People per km²3,924515
Museums within 10 km425
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C5 months7 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Palermo or Pensacola 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. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm.

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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.