VacationSelector
Palermo Cathedral, Palermo
PalermoPalermo Cathedral
The Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier, Santa Monica
Santa MonicaThe Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier

Photos: Palermo by Antonino Giangrasso, Pexels License; Santa Monica by Domenico Convertini, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Palermo or Santa Monica?

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 Santa Monica for

  • families
  • wellness
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Santa Monica’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 Monica 66: Palermo leads by 11 points.
Food & drink. Palermo 81, Santa Monica 60: Palermo leads by 21 points.
Culture & sights. Palermo 80, Santa Monica 35: Palermo leads by 45 points.
Nightlife. Palermo 58, Santa Monica 38: Palermo leads by 20 points.
Nature & outdoors. Palermo and Santa Monica are level on 72.
Day trips. Palermo 84, Santa Monica 64: Palermo leads by 20 points.
Good for families. Palermo 44, Santa Monica 70: Santa Monica leads by 26 points.
Getting around. Palermo 50, Santa Monica 52: Santa Monica leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Palermo 44, Santa Monica 56: Santa Monica leads by 12 points.
Affordability. Palermo 63, Santa Monica 14: Palermo leads by 49 points.
Live music & performing arts. Palermo 62, Santa Monica 38: Palermo leads by 24 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Palermo 30, Santa Monica 45: Santa Monica leads by 15 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Palermo and Santa Monica.

Your match

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

Palermo
Best match
62match

Wins on prices and culture and sights with your weighting.

Santa Monica
51match

Wins on families and wellness 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 Monica in July

24 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
20 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080JFMAMJJASOND
PalermoSanta Monica

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). Santa Monica: 1991-2020 normals, Los Angeles Airport (13.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePalermoSanta Monica
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 m32 m
Main airportFalcone–Borsellino Airport (PMO)25 km from centre106 non-stop destinationsLos Angeles International Airport (LAX)11 km from centre177 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasurePalermoSanta Monica
City population630,16793,076
People per km²3,9244,270
Museums within 10 km4219
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
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 Santa Monica 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.