VacationSelector
Palermo Cathedral, Palermo
PalermoPalermo Cathedral
Rabelo boats on the Douro and the Ribeira, Porto
PortoRabelo boats on the Douro and the Ribeira

Photos: Palermo by Antonino Giangrasso, Pexels License; Porto by Jakub Hałun, CC BY 4.0, cropped.

Palermo or Porto?

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
  • food and drink

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

Choose Porto for

  • getting around
  • families
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Porto’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, Porto 40: Palermo leads by 37 points.
Food & drink. Palermo 81, Porto 70: Palermo leads by 11 points.
Culture & sights. Palermo 80, Porto 68: Palermo leads by 12 points.
Nightlife. Palermo 58, Porto 65: Porto leads by 7 points.
Nature & outdoors. Palermo 72, Porto 64: Palermo leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Palermo 84, Porto 79: Palermo leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Palermo 44, Porto 52: Porto leads by 8 points.
Getting around. Palermo 50, Porto 66: Porto leads by 16 points.
Shopping & style. Palermo 44, Porto 52: Porto leads by 8 points.
Affordability. Palermo 63, Porto 62: Palermo leads by 1 points.
Live music & performing arts. Palermo 62, Porto 52: Palermo leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Palermo 30, Porto 34: Porto leads by 4 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Palermo and Porto.

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.

Porto
59match

Wins on getting around and families 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

Porto in July

25 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
22 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
17 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
PalermoPorto

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). Porto: 1991-2020 normals, Porto / Serra Do Pilar (2.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePalermoPorto
Official languageItalianPortuguese
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCFL230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC, UTC+1 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation14 m104 m
Main airportFalcone–Borsellino Airport (PMO)25 km from centre106 non-stop destinationsFrancisco de Sá Carneiro Airport (OPO)12 km from centre134 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasurePalermoPorto
City population630,167273,476
People per km²3,9246,606
Museums within 10 km4242
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km13
Swim season, months above 21 °C5 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Palermo or Porto 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.