VacationSelector
The Explanada de España, Alicante
AlicanteThe Explanada de España
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: Alicante by Emilio Sánchez Hernández, Pexels License; Panama City by Ayaita, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Alicante 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 Alicante for

  • beaches
  • getting around
  • families

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

Choose Panama City for

  • culture and sights
  • nature and the outdoors
  • 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. Alicante 82, Panama City 44: Alicante leads by 38 points.
Food & drink. Alicante 67, Panama City 57: Alicante leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. Alicante 46, Panama City 62: Panama City leads by 16 points.
Nightlife. Alicante 60, Panama City 62: Panama City leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Alicante 63, Panama City 74: Panama City leads by 11 points.
Day trips. Alicante 72, Panama City 50: Alicante leads by 22 points.
Good for families. Alicante 68, Panama City 45: Alicante leads by 23 points.
Getting around. Alicante 66, Panama City 40: Alicante leads by 26 points.
Shopping & style. Alicante 44, Panama City 52: Panama City leads by 8 points.
Affordability. Alicante 60, Panama City 55: Alicante leads by 5 points.
Live music & performing arts. Alicante 37, Panama City 34: Alicante leads by 3 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Alicante 40, Panama City 22: Alicante leads by 18 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Alicante and Panama City.

Your match

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

Alicante
Best match
59match

Wins on beaches and getting around with your weighting.

Panama City
50match

Wins on culture and sights and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Alicante in July

30 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
3 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Panama City in July

31 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
161 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400500JFMAMJJASOND
AlicantePanama City

Where the figures come from

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. Alicante: 1991-2020 normals, Alicante (2.8 km from centre). Panama City: 1991-2020 normals, Tocumen (20.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAlicantePanama City
Official languageSpanishSpanish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Balboa (PAB)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-5
Emergency number112911
Elevation3 m20 m
Main airportAlicante-Elche Miguel Hernández Airport (ALC)10 km from centre126 non-stop destinationsTocumen International Airport (PTY)20 km from centre92 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureAlicantePanama City
City population366,2211,540,000
People per km²1,8195,600
Museums within 10 km810
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km22
Swim season, months above 21 °C5 months12 months

Where else could you go?

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