VacationSelector
Palermo Cathedral, Palermo
PalermoPalermo Cathedral
Hanok houses in Bukchon, Seoul
SeoulHanok houses in Bukchon

Photos: Palermo by Antonino Giangrasso, Pexels License; Seoul by 거열 박, Pexels License.

Palermo or Seoul?

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
  • prices
  • day trips

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

Choose Seoul for

  • wellness
  • shopping
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Seoul’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, Seoul 18: Palermo leads by 59 points.
Food & drink. Palermo 81, Seoul 84: Seoul leads by 3 points.
Culture & sights. Palermo 80, Seoul 75: Palermo leads by 5 points.
Nightlife. Palermo 58, Seoul 84: Seoul leads by 26 points.
Nature & outdoors. Palermo 72, Seoul 75: Seoul leads by 3 points.
Day trips. Palermo 84, Seoul 77: Palermo leads by 7 points.
Good for families. Palermo 44, Seoul 80: Seoul leads by 36 points.
Getting around. Palermo 50, Seoul 87: Seoul leads by 37 points.
Shopping & style. Palermo 44, Seoul 85: Seoul leads by 41 points.
Affordability. Palermo 63, Seoul 50: Palermo leads by 13 points.
Live music & performing arts. Palermo 62, Seoul 63: Seoul leads by 1 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Palermo 30, Seoul 75: Seoul leads by 45 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Palermo and Seoul.

Your match

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

Palermo
62match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

Seoul
Best match
71match

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

Seoul in July

29 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
422 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
21 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400500JFMAMJJASOND
PalermoSeoul

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

Before you go

MeasurePalermoSeoul
Official languageItalianKorean, Korean Sign Language
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Won (KRW)
SocketsCFL230 V, 50 HzCF220 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+9
Emergency number112Police 112, ambulance 119, fire 119
Elevation14 m38 m
Main airportFalcone–Borsellino Airport (PMO)25 km from centre106 non-stop destinationsIncheon International Airport (ICN)49 km from centre162 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days18 days

By the numbers

MeasurePalermoSeoul
City population630,1679,668,465
People per km²3,92415,973
Museums within 10 km4281
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km15
Swim season, months above 21 °C5 months2 months

Where else could you go?

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