VacationSelector
Palermo Cathedral, Palermo
PalermoPalermo Cathedral
The Opera House from the water, Sydney
SydneyThe Opera House from the water

Photos: Palermo by Antonino Giangrasso, Pexels License; Sydney by Bernard Spragg, CC0.

Palermo or Sydney?

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

  • prices
  • day trips
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Sydney for

  • families
  • getting around
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Sydney’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, Sydney 95: Sydney leads by 18 points.
Food & drink. Palermo 81, Sydney 77: Palermo leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. Palermo 80, Sydney 60: Palermo leads by 20 points.
Nightlife. Palermo 58, Sydney 60: Sydney leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Palermo 72, Sydney 85: Sydney leads by 13 points.
Day trips. Palermo 84, Sydney 50: Palermo leads by 34 points.
Good for families. Palermo 44, Sydney 75: Sydney leads by 31 points.
Getting around. Palermo 50, Sydney 75: Sydney leads by 25 points.
Shopping & style. Palermo 44, Sydney 68: Sydney leads by 24 points.
Affordability. Palermo 63, Sydney 22: Palermo leads by 41 points.
Live music & performing arts. Palermo 62, Sydney 73: Sydney leads by 11 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Palermo 30, Sydney 55: Sydney leads by 25 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Palermo and Sydney.

Your match

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

Palermo
62match

Wins on prices and day trips with your weighting.

Sydney
Best match
66match

Wins on families and getting around 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

Sydney in July

18 °Cdaytime high
9 °Cnight-time low
70 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
19 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
PalermoSydney

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). Sydney: 1991-2020 normals, Sydney Airport (3.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePalermoSydney
Official languageItalianEnglish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Australian Dollar (AUD)
SocketsCFL230 V, 50 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+10, UTC+11 in summer
Emergency number112000
Elevation14 m6 m
Main airportFalcone–Borsellino Airport (PMO)25 km from centre106 non-stop destinationsSydney Kingsford Smith International Airport (SYD)9 km from centre99 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasurePalermoSydney
City population630,1675,450,496
People per km²3,924449
Museums within 10 km4238
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km12
Swim season, months above 21 °C5 months6 months

Where else could you go?

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