VacationSelector
Palermo Cathedral, Palermo
PalermoPalermo Cathedral
The adobe New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe
Santa FeThe adobe New Mexico Museum of Art

Photos: Palermo by Antonino Giangrasso, Pexels License; Santa Fe by dconvertini, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Palermo or Santa Fe?

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
  • prices

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

Choose Santa Fe for

  • wellness
  • shopping
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Santa Fe’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, Santa Fe 5: Palermo leads by 72 points.
Food & drink. Palermo 81, Santa Fe 62: Palermo leads by 19 points.
Culture & sights. Palermo 80, Santa Fe 66: Palermo leads by 14 points.
Nightlife. Palermo 58, Santa Fe 22: Palermo leads by 36 points.
Nature & outdoors. Palermo 72, Santa Fe 80: Santa Fe leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Palermo 84, Santa Fe 70: Palermo leads by 14 points.
Good for families. Palermo 44, Santa Fe 45: Santa Fe leads by 1 points.
Getting around. Palermo 50, Santa Fe 40: Palermo leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Palermo 44, Santa Fe 62: Santa Fe leads by 18 points.
Affordability. Palermo 63, Santa Fe 30: Palermo leads by 33 points.
Live music & performing arts. Palermo 62, Santa Fe 55: Palermo leads by 7 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Palermo 30, Santa Fe 55: Santa Fe leads by 25 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Palermo and Santa Fe.

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.

Santa Fe
49match

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

Santa Fe in July

31 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
60 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080JFMAMJJASOND
PalermoSanta Fe

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.

Santa Fe's station stands 199 m below the city centre, so the centre is likely a little cooler than the figures say.

Santa Fe 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). Santa Fe: 1991-2020 normals, Santa Fe / Cieneguilla (12.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePalermoSanta Fe
Official languageItalian-
CurrencyEuro (EUR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCFL230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-7, UTC-6 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation14 m2,134 m
Main airportFalcone–Borsellino Airport (PMO)25 km from centre106 non-stop destinationsSanta Fe Municipal Airport (SAF)12 km from centre5 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasurePalermoSanta Fe
City population630,16787,505
People per km²3,924645
Museums within 10 km4210
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
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 Santa Fe 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.