VacationSelector
Palermo Cathedral, Palermo
PalermoPalermo Cathedral
The House of the Blackheads at dusk, Riga
RigaThe House of the Blackheads at dusk

Photos: Palermo by Antonino Giangrasso, Pexels License; Riga by Diliff, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Palermo or Riga?

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
  • food and drink
  • day trips

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

Choose Riga for

  • wellness
  • getting around
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Riga’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, Riga 40: Palermo leads by 37 points.
Food & drink. Palermo 81, Riga 52: Palermo leads by 29 points.
Culture & sights. Palermo 80, Riga 66: Palermo leads by 14 points.
Nightlife. Palermo 58, Riga 52: Palermo leads by 6 points.
Nature & outdoors. Palermo 72, Riga 55: Palermo leads by 17 points.
Day trips. Palermo 84, Riga 60: Palermo leads by 24 points.
Good for families. Palermo 44, Riga 50: Riga leads by 6 points.
Getting around. Palermo 50, Riga 68: Riga leads by 18 points.
Shopping & style. Palermo 44, Riga 45: Riga leads by 1 points.
Affordability. Palermo 63, Riga 62: Palermo leads by 1 points.
Live music & performing arts. Palermo 62, Riga 65: Riga leads by 3 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Palermo 30, Riga 50: Riga leads by 20 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Palermo and Riga.

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 food and drink with your weighting.

Riga
55match

Wins on wellness 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

Riga in July

24 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
87 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
18 °Csea
17 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
PalermoRiga

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). Riga: 1991-2020 normals, Riga (4.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePalermoRiga
Official languageItalianLatvian
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCFL230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+2, UTC+3 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation14 m6 m
Main airportFalcone–Borsellino Airport (PMO)25 km from centre106 non-stop destinationsRiga International Airport (RIX)9 km from centre93 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days-

By the numbers

MeasurePalermoRiga
City population630,167588,911
People per km²3,924-
Museums within 10 km4212
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
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 Riga 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.