VacationSelector
Palermo Cathedral, Palermo
PalermoPalermo Cathedral
The Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco
San FranciscoThe Golden Gate Bridge

Photos: Palermo by Antonino Giangrasso, Pexels License; San Francisco by Elijah Cobb, Pexels License.

Palermo or San Francisco?

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
  • prices
  • culture and sights

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

Choose San Francisco for

  • families
  • getting around
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on San Francisco’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, San Francisco 25: Palermo leads by 52 points.
Food & drink. Palermo 81, San Francisco 82: San Francisco leads by 1 points.
Culture & sights. Palermo 80, San Francisco 68: Palermo leads by 12 points.
Nightlife. Palermo and San Francisco are level on 58.
Nature & outdoors. Palermo 72, San Francisco 80: San Francisco leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Palermo 84, San Francisco 72: Palermo leads by 12 points.
Good for families. Palermo 44, San Francisco 66: San Francisco leads by 22 points.
Getting around. Palermo 50, San Francisco 70: San Francisco leads by 20 points.
Shopping & style. Palermo 44, San Francisco 58: San Francisco leads by 14 points.
Affordability. Palermo 63, San Francisco 14: Palermo leads by 49 points.
Live music & performing arts. Palermo 62, San Francisco 76: San Francisco leads by 14 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Palermo 30, San Francisco 42: San Francisco leads by 12 points.
0255075100

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

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 prices with your weighting.

San Francisco
59match

Wins on families 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

San Francisco in July

22 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
13 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
PalermoSan Francisco

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). San Francisco: 1981-2010 normals, Alameda Naval Air Station (9.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePalermoSan Francisco
Official languageItalian-
CurrencyEuro (EUR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCFL230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation14 m16 m
Main airportFalcone–Borsellino Airport (PMO)25 km from centre106 non-stop destinationsSan Francisco International Airport (SFO)18 km from centre142 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasurePalermoSan Francisco
City population630,167873,965
People per km²3,9241,455
Museums within 10 km4251
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
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 San Francisco 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.