VacationSelector
A palm-lined beach on Akumal Bay, Akumal
AkumalA palm-lined beach on Akumal Bay
The towers of Panama City reflected in the bay in golden light, Panama City
Panama CityThe towers of Panama City reflected in the bay in golden light

Photos: Akumal by Alfonzo Buscemi, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Panama City by Ayaita, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Akumal or Panama City?

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 Akumal for

  • beaches
  • wellness
  • families

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

Choose Panama City for

  • culture and sights
  • nightlife
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Panama City’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. Akumal 88, Panama City 44: Akumal leads by 44 points.
Food & drink. Akumal 28, Panama City 57: Panama City leads by 29 points.
Culture & sights. Akumal 6, Panama City 62: Panama City leads by 56 points.
Nightlife. Akumal 7, Panama City 62: Panama City leads by 55 points.
Nature & outdoors. Akumal 77, Panama City 74: Akumal leads by 3 points.
Day trips. Akumal 68, Panama City 50: Akumal leads by 18 points.
Good for families. Akumal 70, Panama City 45: Akumal leads by 25 points.
Getting around. Akumal 18, Panama City 40: Panama City leads by 22 points.
Shopping & style. Akumal 7, Panama City 52: Panama City leads by 45 points.
Affordability. Akumal 36, Panama City 55: Panama City leads by 19 points.
Live music & performing arts. Akumal 4, Panama City 34: Panama City leads by 30 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Akumal 55, Panama City 22: Akumal leads by 33 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Akumal and Panama City.

Your match

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

Akumal
39match

Wins on beaches and wellness with your weighting.

Panama City
Best match
50match

Wins on culture and sights and nightlife with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Akumal in July

30 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
119 mmrain in the month
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Panama City in July

31 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
161 mmrain in the month
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400500JFMAMJJASOND
AkumalPanama City

Where the figures come from

Akumal has no weather station within reach, so its figures come from a gridded climate model rather than a measured record, and read a broad area rather than the city itself.

Panama City 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.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Akumal: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km. Panama City: 1991-2020 normals, Tocumen (20.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAkumalPanama City
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaSpanish
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Balboa (PAB)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-5
Emergency number911911
Elevation11 m20 m
Main airportCancún International Airport (CUN)85 km from centre135 non-stop destinationsTocumen International Airport (PTY)20 km from centre92 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureAkumalPanama City
City population2,1541,540,000
People per km²-5,600
Museums within 10 km010
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Akumal or Panama City somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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. Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.