VacationSelector
Palermo Cathedral, Palermo
PalermoPalermo Cathedral
Camelback Mountain above the city, Scottsdale
ScottsdaleCamelback Mountain above the city

Photos: Palermo by Antonino Giangrasso, Pexels License; Scottsdale by Visitor7, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Palermo or Scottsdale?

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
  • food and drink

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

Choose Scottsdale for

  • wellness
  • families
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Scottsdale’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, Scottsdale 8: Palermo leads by 69 points.
Food & drink. Palermo 81, Scottsdale 46: Palermo leads by 35 points.
Culture & sights. Palermo 80, Scottsdale 38: Palermo leads by 42 points.
Nightlife. Palermo 58, Scottsdale 52: Palermo leads by 6 points.
Nature & outdoors. Palermo 72, Scottsdale 68: Palermo leads by 4 points.
Day trips. Palermo 84, Scottsdale 50: Palermo leads by 34 points.
Good for families. Palermo 44, Scottsdale 60: Scottsdale leads by 16 points.
Getting around. Palermo 50, Scottsdale 20: Palermo leads by 30 points.
Shopping & style. Palermo 44, Scottsdale 60: Scottsdale leads by 16 points.
Affordability. Palermo 63, Scottsdale 32: Palermo leads by 31 points.
Live music & performing arts. Palermo 62, Scottsdale 40: Palermo leads by 22 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Palermo 30, Scottsdale 72: Scottsdale leads by 42 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Palermo and Scottsdale.

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 culture and sights with your weighting.

Scottsdale
46match

Wins on wellness 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

Scottsdale in July

41 °Cdaytime high
29 °Cnight-time low
23 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°50°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080JFMAMJJASOND
PalermoScottsdale

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). Scottsdale: 1991-2020 normals, Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport (13.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePalermoScottsdale
Official languageItalian-
CurrencyEuro (EUR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCFL230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-7
Emergency number112911
Elevation14 m380 m
Main airportFalcone–Borsellino Airport (PMO)25 km from centre106 non-stop destinationsPhoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX)10 km from centre148 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasurePalermoScottsdale
City population630,167241,361
People per km²3,924-
Museums within 10 km4210
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
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 Scottsdale 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.