VacationSelector
The church of La Compania under a blue sky, Arequipa
ArequipaThe church of La Compania under a blue sky
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: Arequipa by DocSlyper, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Panama City by Ayaita, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Arequipa 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 Arequipa for

  • prices
  • getting around
  • wellness

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

Choose Panama City for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • day trips

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. Arequipa 8, Panama City 44: Panama City leads by 36 points.
Food & drink. Arequipa 66, Panama City 57: Arequipa leads by 9 points.
Culture & sights. Arequipa 64, Panama City 62: Arequipa leads by 2 points.
Nightlife. Arequipa 36, Panama City 62: Panama City leads by 26 points.
Nature & outdoors. Arequipa and Panama City are level on 74.
Day trips. Arequipa 30, Panama City 50: Panama City leads by 20 points.
Good for families. Arequipa 35, Panama City 45: Panama City leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Arequipa 54, Panama City 40: Arequipa leads by 14 points.
Shopping & style. Arequipa 44, Panama City 52: Panama City leads by 8 points.
Affordability. Arequipa 82, Panama City 55: Arequipa leads by 27 points.
Live music & performing arts. Arequipa 27, Panama City 34: Panama City leads by 7 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Arequipa 34, Panama City 22: Arequipa leads by 12 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Arequipa and Panama City.

Your match

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

Arequipa
46match

Wins on prices and getting around with your weighting.

Panama City
Best match
50match

Wins on beaches 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.

Arequipa in July

21 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
No seasea
11 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
ArequipaPanama City

Where the figures come from

Arequipa's station stands 203 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer than the figures say.

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. Arequipa: 1991-2020 normals, Arequipa (9.2 km from centre). Panama City: 1991-2020 normals, Tocumen (20.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureArequipaPanama City
Official languageSpanish, Aymara, QuechuaSpanish
CurrencySol (PEN)Balboa (PAB)
SocketsABC220 V, 60 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-5
Emergency number111 or 911911
Elevation2,335 m20 m
Main airportRodríguez Ballón International Airport (AQP)7 km from centre2 non-stop destinationsTocumen International Airport (PTY)20 km from centre92 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year17 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureArequipaPanama City
City population1,008,2901,540,000
People per km²1,5515,600
Museums within 10 km310
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km12
Swim season, months above 21 °C-12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Arequipa 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. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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.