VacationSelector
Palermo Cathedral, Palermo
PalermoPalermo Cathedral
The Oriental Pearl Tower and Shanghai Tower, Shanghai
ShanghaiThe Oriental Pearl Tower and Shanghai Tower

Photos: Palermo by Antonino Giangrasso, Pexels License; Shanghai by xiquinhosilva, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Palermo or Shanghai?

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
  • nature and the outdoors
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Shanghai for

  • shopping
  • families
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Shanghai’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, Shanghai 10: Palermo leads by 67 points.
Food & drink. Palermo 81, Shanghai 88: Shanghai leads by 7 points.
Culture & sights. Palermo 80, Shanghai 72: Palermo leads by 8 points.
Nightlife. Palermo 58, Shanghai 80: Shanghai leads by 22 points.
Nature & outdoors. Palermo 72, Shanghai 25: Palermo leads by 47 points.
Day trips. Palermo 84, Shanghai 90: Shanghai leads by 6 points.
Good for families. Palermo 44, Shanghai 80: Shanghai leads by 36 points.
Getting around. Palermo 50, Shanghai 85: Shanghai leads by 35 points.
Shopping & style. Palermo 44, Shanghai 82: Shanghai leads by 38 points.
Affordability. Palermo 63, Shanghai 55: Palermo leads by 8 points.
Live music & performing arts. Palermo 62, Shanghai 66: Shanghai leads by 4 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Palermo 30, Shanghai 55: Shanghai leads by 25 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Palermo and Shanghai.

Your match

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

Palermo
62match

Wins on beaches and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Shanghai
Best match
66match

Wins on shopping 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

Shanghai in July

33 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
151 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
26 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
PalermoShanghai

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). Shanghai: 1991-2020 normals, Shanghai / Hongqiao (8.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePalermoShanghai
Official languageItalianPutonghua
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Yuan Renminbi (CNY)
SocketsCFL230 V, 50 HzACI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+8
Emergency number112Police 110, ambulance 120, fire 119
Elevation14 m4 m
Main airportFalcone–Borsellino Airport (PMO)25 km from centre106 non-stop destinationsShanghai Pudong International Airport (PVG)33 km from centre207 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days6 days

By the numbers

MeasurePalermoShanghai
City population630,16724,870,895
People per km²3,9243,922
Museums within 10 km4245
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C5 months5 months

Where else could you go?

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