VacationSelector
Palermo Cathedral, Palermo
PalermoPalermo Cathedral
Ca' d'Zan, the Ringling mansion on Sarasota Bay, Sarasota
SarasotaCa' d'Zan, the Ringling mansion on Sarasota Bay

Photos: Palermo by Antonino Giangrasso, Pexels License; Sarasota by Oleg Yunakov, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Palermo or Sarasota?

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

  • food and drink
  • culture and sights
  • day trips

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

Choose Sarasota for

  • families
  • wellness
  • beaches

What lies behind each score is written up on Sarasota’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, Sarasota 86: Sarasota leads by 9 points.
Food & drink. Palermo 81, Sarasota 44: Palermo leads by 37 points.
Culture & sights. Palermo 80, Sarasota 45: Palermo leads by 35 points.
Nightlife. Palermo 58, Sarasota 28: Palermo leads by 30 points.
Nature & outdoors. Palermo 72, Sarasota 55: Palermo leads by 17 points.
Day trips. Palermo 84, Sarasota 50: Palermo leads by 34 points.
Good for families. Palermo 44, Sarasota 68: Sarasota leads by 24 points.
Getting around. Palermo 50, Sarasota 28: Palermo leads by 22 points.
Shopping & style. Palermo 44, Sarasota 40: Palermo leads by 4 points.
Affordability. Palermo 63, Sarasota 30: Palermo leads by 33 points.
Live music & performing arts. Palermo 62, Sarasota 58: Palermo leads by 4 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Palermo 30, Sarasota 45: Sarasota leads by 15 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Palermo and Sarasota.

Your match

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

Palermo
Best match
62match

Wins on food and drink and culture and sights with your weighting.

Sarasota
48match

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

Sarasota in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
195 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
30 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
PalermoSarasota

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.

Sarasota 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.

Sarasota's sunshine is measured 70 km from the centre, at Tampa International Airport.

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). Sarasota: 2006-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Sarasota / Ballentine Manor (6.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePalermoSarasota
Official languageItalian-
CurrencyEuro (EUR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCFL230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation14 m7 m
Main airportFalcone–Borsellino Airport (PMO)25 km from centre106 non-stop destinationsSarasota Bradenton International Airport (SRQ)7 km from centre70 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasurePalermoSarasota
City population630,16754,842
People per km²3,924840
Museums within 10 km423
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C5 months8 months

Where else could you go?

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