VacationSelector
Palermo Cathedral, Palermo
PalermoPalermo Cathedral
Sugarloaf Mountain above the boats in Botafogo Bay, Rio de Janeiro
Rio de JaneiroSugarloaf Mountain above the boats in Botafogo Bay

Photos: Palermo by Antonino Giangrasso, Pexels License; Rio de Janeiro by Arne Müseler, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE, cropped.

Palermo or Rio de Janeiro?

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 Rio de Janeiro for

  • nightlife
  • nature and the outdoors
  • beaches

What lies behind each score is written up on Rio de Janeiro’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, Rio de Janeiro 92: Rio de Janeiro leads by 15 points.
Food & drink. Palermo 81, Rio de Janeiro 62: Palermo leads by 19 points.
Culture & sights. Palermo 80, Rio de Janeiro 68: Palermo leads by 12 points.
Nightlife. Palermo 58, Rio de Janeiro 80: Rio de Janeiro leads by 22 points.
Nature & outdoors. Palermo 72, Rio de Janeiro 90: Rio de Janeiro leads by 18 points.
Day trips. Palermo 84, Rio de Janeiro 50: Palermo leads by 34 points.
Good for families. Palermo 44, Rio de Janeiro 50: Rio de Janeiro leads by 6 points.
Getting around. Palermo 50, Rio de Janeiro 44: Palermo leads by 6 points.
Shopping & style. Palermo 44, Rio de Janeiro 50: Rio de Janeiro leads by 6 points.
Affordability. Palermo 63, Rio de Janeiro 60: Palermo leads by 3 points.
Live music & performing arts. Palermo 62, Rio de Janeiro 66: Rio de Janeiro leads by 4 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Palermo and Rio de Janeiro are level on 30.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Palermo and Rio de Janeiro.

Your match

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

Too close to call, level with your weighting

Palermo
62match

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

Rio de Janeiro
62match

Wins on nightlife and nature and the outdoors 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

Rio de Janeiro in July

24 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
45 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
22 °Csea
11 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
PalermoRio de Janeiro

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.

Rio de Janeiro has no weather station within reach, so its figures come from a gridded climate model rather than a measured record, and read a broad area rather than the city itself.

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). Rio de Janeiro: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasurePalermoRio de Janeiro
Official languageItalianPortuguese
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Brazilian Real (BRL)
SocketsCFL230 V, 50 HzCN60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-3
Emergency number112Police 190, ambulance 192, fire 193
Elevation14 m31 m
Main airportFalcone–Borsellino Airport (PMO)25 km from centre106 non-stop destinationsRio de Janeiro Galeão – Tom Jobim International Airport (GIG)12 km from centre54 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasurePalermoRio de Janeiro
City population630,1676,211,223
People per km²3,9244,930
Museums within 10 km4269
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km13
Swim season, months above 21 °C5 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Palermo or Rio de Janeiro 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. Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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.