Palermo rewards a plan more than most cities, because the good things are scattered and the middle of the day is unusable in summer.
The shape that works is simple: sights in the morning, something indoors and cool in the afternoon, the city outside in the evening. Everything below is built around that. The wider planning is in my complete guide to Palermo.
If you only have one day
Tight, and it means missing Monreale, which is a real loss.
Half past eight. The royal chapel, at opening. It closes without warning and this is the only reliable slot.
Half past ten. Walk down to the cathedral, round the apse end, then east into the old centre.
Noon. Il Capo or Ballarò. Eat standing up.
Afternoon. La Martorana, then a cloister, then sit somewhere cool. Do not attempt anything ambitious between two and five.
Seven. The Foro Italico, then dinner late.
Day one, and where to start
With two days or more, spend the first one on the Arab-Norman city and the markets, because they explain each other.
Chapel first. Cathedral second. Market for lunch. In the afternoon, La Martorana and San Cataldo on Piazza Bellini, which take twenty minutes between them and are usually empty.
Then get up high. A rooftop terrace or the cathedral roof walk gives you the shape of the place: the domes, the flat roofs, the mountains right behind the city, the bay on the other side. Palermo makes far more sense from above than it does at street level.
The point of day one is not to tick things off. It is to work out how the layers sit on top of each other, so that day two stops feeling like a list.
Day two: Monreale, and the city in the evening
Go up to Monreale in the morning, on the 389 from Piazza Indipendenza. One euro forty, a bit over half an hour.
Give it three hours: the cathedral, the cloister, and a slow walk down through the town. Be back in Palermo for a late lunch.
Afternoon indoors: the archaeological museum, or the puppet museum, or a long lunch that turns into a longer one. Evening on the Foro Italico, or in Vucciria if you want the loud version.
Full detail on the trip is in Monreale from Palermo.
Day three: choose one
Three days is where Palermo stops being a city break and starts being a proper stay.
The sea. Mondello, twenty minutes on the bus, a pale crescent of sand with a bathing pavilion out in the water. Half a day, or a full one in August.
Cefalù. An hour by train, a Norman cathedral, an enormous rock, and a good beach at the bottom of it. This is the strongest single day trip.
Segesta and Erice. A Doric temple standing alone on a hillside, and a walled town in the clouds above Trapani. This one needs a car or a tour and fills the day properly.
Or nothing. Stay in the city, walk the same four streets again, eat well twice. This is a defensible use of a day in Palermo and I have done it.
The options are in day trips from Palermo and the beach in Mondello and the beaches near Palermo.
Day four and more
At four nights Palermo becomes a base rather than a stop, and western Sicily opens up.
Add the salt pans and the windmills south of Trapani, best in the late afternoon when the water goes pink. Add the Zisa, the Norman summer palace out to the west that almost nobody visits. Add a second beach, or a second market morning, which is not a waste.
The one variable that changes everything
The Festino di Santa Rosalia, mid-July, peaking on the evening of the fourteenth.
The whole centre is given over to it: processions, lights strung down the streets, a crowd that fills the main avenue, fireworks over the sea at the end. It is one of the great southern Italian festivals.
If your dates are near it, build the trip around it and accept that ordinary sightseeing largely stops for a couple of days. If you want a calm city, avoid that week entirely. There is no middle course.
A worked two day plan
If you want it as a single block rather than as principles, this is what I would actually do.
Day one, morning. Chapel at opening. Walk down Corso Vittorio Emanuele to the cathedral and round the apse end. Cut north into Il Capo and eat standing up.
Day one, afternoon. Piazza Bellini for La Martorana and San Cataldo, twenty minutes for both. Then Palazzo Abatellis in the Kalsa for the Triumph of Death, which is air conditioned and nearly empty. Sit somewhere with a granita until five.
Day one, evening. Quattro Canti and Piazza Pretoria on the way through, then the Foro Italico. Dinner at nine.
Day two, morning. The 389 to Monreale from Piazza Indipendenza. Cathedral, cloister, belvedere. Back by two.
Day two, afternoon. Late lunch, then either the archaeological museum or a slow walk through the Kalsa looking at palazzo courtyards through open gates, which is free and better than it sounds.
Day two, evening. Vucciria after nine if you want the loud version of the city, or the seafront again if you do not.
That covers the essentials, keeps the middle of both days indoors or slow, and does not require a single taxi.
What order not to do it in
Do not leave the chapel until day two. It closes at no notice and people lose it.
Do not put a market in the afternoon. Most food stalls are done by two.
Do not do Monreale as a half day tacked onto something else. The cloister deserves an hour on its own.
Do not plan anything strenuous between two and five in July or August. The city itself refuses to, and it is right.
A wet day
It rains between about November and March, sometimes hard.
The indoor day is a good one here: the chapel, La Martorana, the archaeological museum with the Selinunte metopes, the puppet museum, and a long lunch. That fills a day properly, which is more than many Italian cities manage.
With children
Better than you would expect. The markets are loud and full of things to point at, the puppet theatre is armoured combat at close range, and the beach is twenty minutes away.
What does not work is a hot afternoon in a museum, and the catacombs, which is an easy no.
Read also: the best things to do in Palermo, where to stay in Palermo, and my complete guide to Palermo.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many days do you need in Palermo?
Two nights is the honest minimum, three is right, and four turns the city into a base for western Sicily. One day covers the chapel, a market and the cathedral, but it means giving up Monreale, which is the excursion most people would keep.
Is one day enough for Palermo?
It is enough to see the royal chapel, a market and the cathedral, and not enough to include Monreale or the sea. If you have a single day, start at the chapel at opening and accept that the day is about the old centre only.
What should you do first in Palermo?
The Cappella Palatina, at opening. It closes at short notice for institutional business, so it is the one thing that cannot safely be postponed. Everything else in the city can be moved around it.
Can you do Palermo as a day trip?
Not well. Palermo is two hours from Catania and over three from Taormina, which means arriving mid morning and leaving before the evening, and the evening is when the city is at its best. It deserves nights rather than hours.
Is Palermo walkable?
The historic centre is, and walking is much the best way to see it. The distances between the chapel, the cathedral, the markets and Piazza Bellini are all short. Buses matter only for Monreale, Mondello and the airport.
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