VacationSelector
Palermo Cathedral, Palermo
PalermoPalermo Cathedral
Hawthorne Bridge and downtown, Portland
PortlandHawthorne Bridge and downtown

Photos: Palermo by Antonino Giangrasso, Pexels License; Portland by Cacophony, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Palermo or Portland?

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

  • beaches
  • culture and sights
  • day trips

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

Choose Portland for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • getting around
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Portland’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, Portland 20: Palermo leads by 57 points.
Food & drink. Palermo 81, Portland 68: Palermo leads by 13 points.
Culture & sights. Palermo 80, Portland 38: Palermo leads by 42 points.
Nightlife. Palermo 58, Portland 52: Palermo leads by 6 points.
Nature & outdoors. Palermo 72, Portland 84: Portland leads by 12 points.
Day trips. Palermo 84, Portland 58: Palermo leads by 26 points.
Good for families. Palermo 44, Portland 55: Portland leads by 11 points.
Getting around. Palermo 50, Portland 62: Portland leads by 12 points.
Shopping & style. Palermo 44, Portland 52: Portland leads by 8 points.
Affordability. Palermo 63, Portland 38: Palermo leads by 25 points.
Live music & performing arts. Palermo 62, Portland 55: Palermo leads by 7 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Palermo 30, Portland 42: Portland leads by 12 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Palermo and Portland.

Your match

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

Palermo
Best match
62match

Wins on beaches and culture and sights with your weighting.

Portland
52match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and getting around 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

Portland in July

27 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
13 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
PalermoPortland

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). Portland: 1991-2020 normals, Portland International Airport (9.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePalermoPortland
Official languageItalian-
CurrencyEuro (EUR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCFL230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation14 m152 m
Main airportFalcone–Borsellino Airport (PMO)25 km from centre106 non-stop destinationsPortland International Airport (PDX)10 km from centre88 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasurePalermoPortland
City population630,167652,503
People per km²3,9241,736
Museums within 10 km4217
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C5 months-

Where else could you go?

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