VacationSelector
Palermo Cathedral, Palermo
PalermoPalermo Cathedral
The pink Don CeSar hotel seen from the beach, St. Pete Beach
St. Pete BeachThe pink Don CeSar hotel seen from the beach

Photos: Palermo by Antonino Giangrasso, Pexels License; St. Pete Beach by Jeffrey Eisen, Pexels License.

Palermo or St. Pete Beach?

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

  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts
  • food and drink

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

Choose St. Pete Beach for

  • families
  • wellness
  • beaches

What lies behind each score is written up on St. Pete Beach’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, St. Pete Beach 87: St. Pete Beach leads by 10 points.
Food & drink. Palermo 81, St. Pete Beach 40: Palermo leads by 41 points.
Culture & sights. Palermo 80, St. Pete Beach 18: Palermo leads by 62 points.
Nightlife. Palermo 58, St. Pete Beach 28: Palermo leads by 30 points.
Nature & outdoors. Palermo 72, St. Pete Beach 57: Palermo leads by 15 points.
Day trips. Palermo 84, St. Pete Beach 58: Palermo leads by 26 points.
Good for families. Palermo 44, St. Pete Beach 72: St. Pete Beach leads by 28 points.
Getting around. Palermo 50, St. Pete Beach 30: Palermo leads by 20 points.
Shopping & style. Palermo 44, St. Pete Beach 20: Palermo leads by 24 points.
Affordability. Palermo 63, St. Pete Beach 32: Palermo leads by 31 points.
Live music & performing arts. Palermo 62, St. Pete Beach 20: Palermo leads by 42 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Palermo 30, St. Pete Beach 42: St. Pete Beach leads by 12 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Palermo and St. Pete Beach.

Your match

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

Palermo
Best match
62match

Wins on culture and sights and live music and the arts with your weighting.

St. Pete Beach
42match

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

St. Pete Beach in July

32 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
185 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
PalermoSt. Pete Beach

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.

St. Pete Beach 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.

St. Pete Beach's sunshine is measured 34 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). St. Pete Beach: 1998-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Saint Petersburg (12.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePalermoSt. Pete Beach
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 m2 m
Main airportFalcone–Borsellino Airport (PMO)25 km from centre106 non-stop destinationsSt. Petersburg Clearwater International Airport (PIE)21 km from centre60 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasurePalermoSt. Pete Beach
City population630,1678,879
People per km²3,924173
Museums within 10 km422
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 St. Pete Beach 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.