VacationSelector
Palermo Cathedral, Palermo
PalermoPalermo Cathedral
The old Hokkaido Government Office and its flower beds, Sapporo
SapporoThe old Hokkaido Government Office and its flower beds

Photos: Palermo by Antonino Giangrasso, Pexels License; Sapporo by Feri88, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Palermo or Sapporo?

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
  • culture and sights
  • day trips

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

Choose Sapporo for

  • wellness
  • getting around
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Sapporo’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, Sapporo 28: Palermo leads by 49 points.
Food & drink. Palermo 81, Sapporo 80: Palermo leads by 1 points.
Culture & sights. Palermo 80, Sapporo 40: Palermo leads by 40 points.
Nightlife. Palermo 58, Sapporo 62: Sapporo leads by 4 points.
Nature & outdoors. Palermo 72, Sapporo 86: Sapporo leads by 14 points.
Day trips. Palermo 84, Sapporo 64: Palermo leads by 20 points.
Good for families. Palermo 44, Sapporo 72: Sapporo leads by 28 points.
Getting around. Palermo 50, Sapporo 80: Sapporo leads by 30 points.
Shopping & style. Palermo 44, Sapporo 58: Sapporo leads by 14 points.
Affordability. Palermo 63, Sapporo 60: Palermo leads by 3 points.
Live music & performing arts. Palermo 62, Sapporo 44: Palermo leads by 18 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Palermo 30, Sapporo 80: Sapporo leads by 50 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Palermo and Sapporo.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Palermo
62match

Wins on beaches and culture and sights with your weighting.

Sapporo
63match

Wins on wellness 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

Sapporo in July

25 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
91 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
19 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
PalermoSapporo

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). Sapporo: 1991-2020 normals, Sapporo (2.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePalermoSapporo
Official languageItalianJapanese
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Yen (JPY)
SocketsCFL230 V, 50 HzAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the region
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+9
Emergency number112Police 110, fire 119
Elevation14 m5 m
Main airportFalcone–Borsellino Airport (PMO)25 km from centre106 non-stop destinationsNew Chitose Airport (CTS)42 km from centre42 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasurePalermoSapporo
City population630,1671,959,313
People per km²3,9241,747
Museums within 10 km4233
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
Swim season, months above 21 °C5 months1 month

Where else could you go?

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