VacationSelector
Palermo Cathedral, Palermo
PalermoPalermo Cathedral
The White Tower from the promenade, Thessaloniki
ThessalonikiThe White Tower from the promenade

Photos: Palermo by Antonino Giangrasso, Pexels License; Thessaloniki by Destinygreece, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Palermo or Thessaloniki?

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
  • day trips
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Thessaloniki for

  • nightlife
  • getting around
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Thessaloniki’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, Thessaloniki 55: Palermo leads by 22 points.
Food & drink. Palermo 81, Thessaloniki 77: Palermo leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. Palermo 80, Thessaloniki 73: Palermo leads by 7 points.
Nightlife. Palermo 58, Thessaloniki 76: Thessaloniki leads by 18 points.
Nature & outdoors. Palermo 72, Thessaloniki 66: Palermo leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Palermo 84, Thessaloniki 74: Palermo leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Palermo 44, Thessaloniki 50: Thessaloniki leads by 6 points.
Getting around. Palermo 50, Thessaloniki 60: Thessaloniki leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Palermo 44, Thessaloniki 50: Thessaloniki leads by 6 points.
Affordability. Palermo 63, Thessaloniki 66: Thessaloniki leads by 3 points.
Live music & performing arts. Palermo 62, Thessaloniki 52: Palermo leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Palermo 30, Thessaloniki 33: Thessaloniki leads by 3 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Palermo and Thessaloniki.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Palermo
62match

Wins on beaches and day trips with your weighting.

Thessaloniki
61match

Wins on nightlife 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

Thessaloniki in July

32 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
23 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
26 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080JFMAMJJASOND
PalermoThessaloniki

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). Thessaloniki: 1991-2020 normals, Thessaloniki Airport (14 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePalermoThessaloniki
Official languageItalianGreek
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCFL230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+2, UTC+3 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation14 m6 m
Main airportFalcone–Borsellino Airport (PMO)25 km from centre106 non-stop destinationsThessaloniki Macedonia International Airport (SKG)14 km from centre90 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days15 days

By the numbers

MeasurePalermoThessaloniki
City population630,167309,617
People per km²3,92416,042
Museums within 10 km4232
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
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 Thessaloniki 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. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates.

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.