VacationSelector
Palermo Cathedral, Palermo
PalermoPalermo Cathedral
Painted colonial houses in the Pelourinho, Salvador
SalvadorPainted colonial houses in the Pelourinho

Photos: Palermo by Antonino Giangrasso, Pexels License; Salvador by Paul R. Burley, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Palermo or Salvador?

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
  • nature and the outdoors
  • food and drink

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

Choose Salvador for

  • nightlife
  • beaches
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Salvador’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, Salvador 84: Salvador leads by 7 points.
Food & drink. Palermo 81, Salvador 66: Palermo leads by 15 points.
Culture & sights. Palermo 80, Salvador 74: Palermo leads by 6 points.
Nightlife. Palermo 58, Salvador 70: Salvador leads by 12 points.
Nature & outdoors. Palermo 72, Salvador 52: Palermo leads by 20 points.
Day trips. Palermo 84, Salvador 56: Palermo leads by 28 points.
Good for families. Palermo 44, Salvador 42: Palermo leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Palermo 50, Salvador 42: Palermo leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. Palermo 44, Salvador 42: Palermo leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Palermo 63, Salvador 70: Salvador leads by 7 points.
Live music & performing arts. Palermo 62, Salvador 63: Salvador leads by 1 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Palermo 30, Salvador 32: Salvador leads by 2 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Palermo and Salvador.

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 nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Salvador
58match

Wins on nightlife 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

Salvador in July

27 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
201 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
26 °Csea
11 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
PalermoSalvador

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). Salvador: 1991-2020 normals, Salvador (4.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePalermoSalvador
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 m8 m
Main airportFalcone–Borsellino Airport (PMO)25 km from centre106 non-stop destinationsDeputado Luiz Eduardo Magalhães International Airport (SSA)20 km from centre31 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasurePalermoSalvador
City population630,1672,417,678
People per km²3,9243,489
Museums within 10 km4249
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
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 Salvador 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.