VacationSelector
Palermo Cathedral, Palermo
PalermoPalermo Cathedral
The Arctic Cathedral, Tromso
TromsoThe Arctic Cathedral

Photos: Palermo by Antonino Giangrasso, Pexels License; Tromso by Moyan Brenn, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Palermo or Tromso?

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

  • day trips
  • beaches
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Tromso for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • getting around
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Tromso’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, Tromso 8: Palermo leads by 69 points.
Food & drink. Palermo 81, Tromso 36: Palermo leads by 45 points.
Culture & sights. Palermo 80, Tromso 27: Palermo leads by 53 points.
Nightlife. Palermo 58, Tromso 38: Palermo leads by 20 points.
Nature & outdoors. Palermo 72, Tromso 92: Tromso leads by 20 points.
Day trips. Palermo 84, Tromso 14: Palermo leads by 70 points.
Good for families. Palermo 44, Tromso 45: Tromso leads by 1 points.
Getting around. Palermo 50, Tromso 60: Tromso leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Palermo 44, Tromso 15: Palermo leads by 29 points.
Affordability. Palermo 63, Tromso 11: Palermo leads by 52 points.
Live music & performing arts. Palermo 62, Tromso 32: Palermo leads by 30 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Palermo 30, Tromso 38: Tromso leads by 8 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Palermo and Tromso.

Your match

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

Palermo
Best match
62match

Wins on day trips and beaches with your weighting.

Tromso
35match

Wins on nature and the outdoors 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

Tromso in July

16 °Cdaytime high
9 °Cnight-time low
73 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
10 °Csea
24 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
PalermoTromso

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). Tromso: 1991-2020 normals, Tromso (0.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePalermoTromso
Official languageItalianNorwegian, Nynorsk, Bokmål, Sámi
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Norwegian Krone (NOK)
SocketsCFL230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112Police 112, ambulance 113, fire 110
Elevation14 m20 m
Main airportFalcone–Borsellino Airport (PMO)25 km from centre106 non-stop destinationsTromsø Airport (TOS)4 km from centre49 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasurePalermoTromso
City population630,16779,943
People per km²3,92432
Museums within 10 km428
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C5 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Palermo or Tromso 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.