VacationSelector
Palermo Cathedral, Palermo
PalermoPalermo Cathedral
The old town below the fortress, Salzburg
SalzburgThe old town below the fortress

Photos: Palermo by Antonino Giangrasso, Pexels License; Salzburg by Leonhard Niederwimmer, Pexels License.

Palermo or Salzburg?

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
  • nightlife

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

Choose Salzburg for

  • wellness
  • getting around
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Salzburg’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, Salzburg 35: Palermo leads by 42 points.
Food & drink. Palermo 81, Salzburg 45: Palermo leads by 36 points.
Culture & sights. Palermo 80, Salzburg 72: Palermo leads by 8 points.
Nightlife. Palermo 58, Salzburg 25: Palermo leads by 33 points.
Nature & outdoors. Palermo 72, Salzburg 86: Salzburg leads by 14 points.
Day trips. Palermo 84, Salzburg 80: Palermo leads by 4 points.
Good for families. Palermo 44, Salzburg 65: Salzburg leads by 21 points.
Getting around. Palermo 50, Salzburg 72: Salzburg leads by 22 points.
Shopping & style. Palermo 44, Salzburg 48: Salzburg leads by 4 points.
Affordability. Palermo 63, Salzburg 32: Palermo leads by 31 points.
Live music & performing arts. Palermo 62, Salzburg 80: Salzburg leads by 18 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Palermo 30, Salzburg 55: Salzburg leads by 25 points.
0255075100

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

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.

Salzburg
58match

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

Salzburg in July

25 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
159 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
No seasea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
PalermoSalzburg

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). Salzburg: 1991-2020 normals, Salzburg (3.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePalermoSalzburg
Official languageItalianGerman, Austrian Sign Language
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCFL230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation14 m424 m
Main airportFalcone–Borsellino Airport (PMO)25 km from centre106 non-stop destinationsSalzburg Airport (SZG)3 km from centre64 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasurePalermoSalzburg
City population630,167155,021
People per km²3,9242,360
Museums within 10 km4238
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km13
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 Salzburg 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.