VacationSelector
Palermo Cathedral, Palermo
PalermoPalermo Cathedral
A cobbled street of painted houses in the old town, San Miguel de Allende
San Miguel de AllendeA cobbled street of painted houses in the old town

Photos: Palermo by Antonino Giangrasso, Pexels License; San Miguel de Allende by Russ Bowling, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Palermo or San Miguel de Allende?

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
  • nature and the outdoors
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose San Miguel de Allende for

  • wellness
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on San Miguel de Allende’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 Miguel de Allende 4: Palermo leads by 73 points.
Food & drink. Palermo 81, San Miguel de Allende 62: Palermo leads by 19 points.
Culture & sights. Palermo 80, San Miguel de Allende 62: Palermo leads by 18 points.
Nightlife. Palermo 58, San Miguel de Allende 38: Palermo leads by 20 points.
Nature & outdoors. Palermo 72, San Miguel de Allende 40: Palermo leads by 32 points.
Day trips. Palermo 84, San Miguel de Allende 77: Palermo leads by 7 points.
Good for families. Palermo 44, San Miguel de Allende 32: Palermo leads by 12 points.
Getting around. Palermo 50, San Miguel de Allende 48: Palermo leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Palermo 44, San Miguel de Allende 55: San Miguel de Allende leads by 11 points.
Affordability. Palermo 63, San Miguel de Allende 50: Palermo leads by 13 points.
Live music & performing arts. Palermo 62, San Miguel de Allende 40: Palermo leads by 22 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Palermo 30, San Miguel de Allende 66: San Miguel de Allende leads by 36 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Palermo and San Miguel de Allende.

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 nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

San Miguel de Allende
48match

Wins on wellness and shopping 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 Miguel de Allende in July

29 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
132 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
No seasea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
PalermoSan Miguel de Allende

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.

San Miguel de Allende's temperatures are measured 54 km from the centre, at Guanajuato, Gto..

San Miguel de Allende 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.

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 Miguel de Allende: 1991-2020 normals, Guanajuato, Gto. (53.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePalermoSan Miguel de Allende
Official languageItalianSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsCFL230 V, 50 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-6
Emergency number112911
Elevation14 m1,900 m
Main airportFalcone–Borsellino Airport (PMO)25 km from centre106 non-stop destinationsGuanajuato International Airport (BJX)77 km from centre22 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasurePalermoSan Miguel de Allende
City population630,16769,811
People per km²3,924-
Museums within 10 km422
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km12
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 San Miguel de Allende 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.