VacationSelector
Palermo Cathedral, Palermo
PalermoPalermo Cathedral
The Great Mosque with the mountains behind, Tirana
TiranaThe Great Mosque with the mountains behind

Photos: Palermo by Antonino Giangrasso, Pexels License; Tirana by Bjørn Christian Tørrissen, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Palermo or Tirana?

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
  • beaches
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Tirana for

  • prices
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Tirana’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, Tirana 46: Palermo leads by 31 points.
Food & drink. Palermo 81, Tirana 57: Palermo leads by 24 points.
Culture & sights. Palermo 80, Tirana 42: Palermo leads by 38 points.
Nightlife. Palermo and Tirana are level on 58.
Nature & outdoors. Palermo 72, Tirana 62: Palermo leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Palermo 84, Tirana 64: Palermo leads by 20 points.
Good for families. Palermo 44, Tirana 40: Palermo leads by 4 points.
Getting around. Palermo 50, Tirana 54: Tirana leads by 4 points.
Shopping & style. Palermo 44, Tirana 32: Palermo leads by 12 points.
Affordability. Palermo 63, Tirana 76: Tirana leads by 13 points.
Live music & performing arts. Palermo 62, Tirana 32: Palermo leads by 30 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Palermo 30, Tirana 27: Palermo leads by 3 points.
0255075100

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

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 beaches with your weighting.

Tirana
49match

Wins on prices 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

Tirana in July

31 °Cdaytime high
17 °Cnight-time low
43 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
24 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
PalermoTirana

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). Tirana: 1961-1990 normals, Tirana (3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePalermoTirana
Official languageItalianAlbanian
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Lek (ALL)
SocketsCFL230 V, 50 HzCF220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation14 m110 m
Main airportFalcone–Borsellino Airport (PMO)25 km from centre106 non-stop destinationsTirana International Airport Mother Teresa (TIA)13 km from centre121 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasurePalermoTirana
City population630,167389,323
People per km²3,9249,314
Museums within 10 km4211
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 Tirana 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.