VacationSelector
Palermo Cathedral, Palermo
PalermoPalermo Cathedral
The US Capitol, Washington DC
Washington DCThe US Capitol

Photos: Palermo by Antonino Giangrasso, Pexels License; Washington DC by Guohua Song, Pexels License.

Palermo or Washington DC?

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
  • prices
  • food and drink

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

Choose Washington DC for

  • families
  • getting around
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Washington DC’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, Washington DC 12: Palermo leads by 65 points.
Food & drink. Palermo 81, Washington DC 67: Palermo leads by 14 points.
Culture & sights. Palermo 80, Washington DC 84: Washington DC leads by 4 points.
Nightlife. Palermo 58, Washington DC 57: Palermo leads by 1 points.
Nature & outdoors. Palermo 72, Washington DC 64: Palermo leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Palermo 84, Washington DC 73: Palermo leads by 11 points.
Good for families. Palermo 44, Washington DC 73: Washington DC leads by 29 points.
Getting around. Palermo 50, Washington DC 72: Washington DC leads by 22 points.
Shopping & style. Palermo 44, Washington DC 52: Washington DC leads by 8 points.
Affordability. Palermo 63, Washington DC 28: Palermo leads by 35 points.
Live music & performing arts. Palermo 62, Washington DC 67: Washington DC leads by 5 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Palermo 30, Washington DC 26: Palermo leads by 4 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Palermo
Best match
62match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

Washington DC
56match

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

Washington DC in July

32 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
108 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
25 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
PalermoWashington DC

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). Washington DC: 1991-2020 normals, Washington National Airport (5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePalermoWashington DC
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 m72 m
Main airportFalcone–Borsellino Airport (PMO)25 km from centre106 non-stop destinationsRonald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA)5 km from centre105 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasurePalermoWashington DC
City population630,167689,545
People per km²3,9243,896
Museums within 10 km4298
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C5 months3 months

Where else could you go?

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