VacationSelector
Palermo Cathedral, Palermo
PalermoPalermo Cathedral
A madrasa and its minarets on the Registan, Samarkand
SamarkandA madrasa and its minarets on the Registan

Photos: Palermo by Antonino Giangrasso, Pexels License; Samarkand by Yaşar Başkurt, Pexels License.

Palermo or Samarkand?

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
  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Samarkand for

  • prices
  • getting around
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Samarkand’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, Samarkand 4: Palermo leads by 73 points.
Food & drink. Palermo 81, Samarkand 54: Palermo leads by 27 points.
Culture & sights. Palermo 80, Samarkand 84: Samarkand leads by 4 points.
Nightlife. Palermo 58, Samarkand 14: Palermo leads by 44 points.
Nature & outdoors. Palermo 72, Samarkand 40: Palermo leads by 32 points.
Day trips. Palermo 84, Samarkand 72: Palermo leads by 12 points.
Good for families. Palermo 44, Samarkand 30: Palermo leads by 14 points.
Getting around. Palermo 50, Samarkand 58: Samarkand leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. Palermo 44, Samarkand 42: Palermo leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Palermo 63, Samarkand 80: Samarkand leads by 17 points.
Live music & performing arts. Palermo 62, Samarkand 24: Palermo leads by 38 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Palermo 30, Samarkand 32: Samarkand leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Palermo and Samarkand.

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 nightlife with your weighting.

Samarkand
45match

Wins on prices 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

Samarkand in July

34 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
2 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080JFMAMJJASOND
PalermoSamarkand

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). Samarkand: 1991-2020 normals, Samarkand (10 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePalermoSamarkand
Official languageItalianUzbek
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Uzbekistan Sum (UZS)
SocketsCFL230 V, 50 HzCFI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+5
Emergency number112112
Elevation14 m702 m
Main airportFalcone–Borsellino Airport (PMO)25 km from centre106 non-stop destinationsSamarkand International Airport (SKD)5 km from centre29 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days-

By the numbers

MeasurePalermoSamarkand
City population630,167546,303
People per km²3,9245,058
Museums within 10 km4211
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
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 Samarkand 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.