VacationSelector
Palermo Cathedral, Palermo
PalermoPalermo Cathedral
The old Tampa Bay Hotel across the river, Tampa
TampaThe old Tampa Bay Hotel across the river

Photos: Palermo by Antonino Giangrasso, Pexels License; Tampa by Ken Lund, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Palermo or Tampa?

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
  • day trips
  • getting around

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

Choose Tampa for

  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Tampa’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, Tampa 70: Palermo leads by 7 points.
Food & drink. Palermo 81, Tampa 57: Palermo leads by 24 points.
Culture & sights. Palermo 80, Tampa 42: Palermo leads by 38 points.
Nightlife. Palermo 58, Tampa 52: Palermo leads by 6 points.
Nature & outdoors. Palermo 72, Tampa 55: Palermo leads by 17 points.
Day trips. Palermo 84, Tampa 54: Palermo leads by 30 points.
Good for families. Palermo 44, Tampa 78: Tampa leads by 34 points.
Getting around. Palermo 50, Tampa 22: Palermo leads by 28 points.
Shopping & style. Palermo 44, Tampa 40: Palermo leads by 4 points.
Affordability. Palermo 63, Tampa 40: Palermo leads by 23 points.
Live music & performing arts. Palermo 62, Tampa 47: Palermo leads by 15 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Palermo and Tampa are level on 30.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Palermo and Tampa.

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 day trips with your weighting.

Tampa
49match

Wins on 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

Tampa in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
197 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
PalermoTampa

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). Tampa: 1991-2020 normals, Tampa International Airport (7.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePalermoTampa
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 m30 m
Main airportFalcone–Borsellino Airport (PMO)25 km from centre106 non-stop destinationsTampa International Airport (TPA)8 km from centre101 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasurePalermoTampa
City population630,167384,959
People per km²3,924848
Museums within 10 km426
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 Tampa 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.