VacationSelector
Palermo Cathedral, Palermo
PalermoPalermo Cathedral
La Concha beach and Monte Urgull, San Sebastian
San SebastianLa Concha beach and Monte Urgull

Photos: Palermo by Antonino Giangrasso, Pexels License; San Sebastian by Guérin Nicolas, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Palermo or San Sebastian?

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

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose San Sebastian for

  • getting around
  • families
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on San Sebastian’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 Sebastian 68: Palermo leads by 9 points.
Food & drink. Palermo 81, San Sebastian 88: San Sebastian leads by 7 points.
Culture & sights. Palermo 80, San Sebastian 52: Palermo leads by 28 points.
Nightlife. Palermo 58, San Sebastian 44: Palermo leads by 14 points.
Nature & outdoors. Palermo and San Sebastian are level on 72.
Day trips. Palermo 84, San Sebastian 80: Palermo leads by 4 points.
Good for families. Palermo 44, San Sebastian 66: San Sebastian leads by 22 points.
Getting around. Palermo 50, San Sebastian 80: San Sebastian leads by 30 points.
Shopping & style. Palermo 44, San Sebastian 40: Palermo leads by 4 points.
Affordability. Palermo 63, San Sebastian 32: Palermo leads by 31 points.
Live music & performing arts. Palermo 62, San Sebastian 45: Palermo leads by 17 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Palermo 30, San Sebastian 50: San Sebastian leads by 20 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Palermo and San Sebastian.

Your match

Pick a travel style or drag the sliders, and both match scores follow your weighting.

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Palermo
62match

Wins on prices and culture and sights with your weighting.

San Sebastian
60match

Wins on getting around and families 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 Sebastian in July

22 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
92 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
21 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
PalermoSan Sebastian

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 Sebastian's station stands 252 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer than the figures say.

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 Sebastian: 1991-2020 normals, San Sebastian / Igueldo (6.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePalermoSan Sebastian
Official languageItalianSpanish
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 m6 m
Main airportFalcone–Borsellino Airport (PMO)25 km from centre106 non-stop destinationsSan Sebastián Airport (EAS)16 km from centre11 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasurePalermoSan Sebastian
City population630,167189,866
People per km²3,9243,118
Museums within 10 km4214
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km13
Swim season, months above 21 °C5 months2 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Palermo or San Sebastian 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.