VacationSelector
The Story Bridge from Howard Smith Wharves, Brisbane
BrisbaneThe Story Bridge from Howard Smith Wharves
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: Brisbane by Kgbo, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Panama City by Ayaita, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Brisbane 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 Brisbane for

  • families
  • getting around
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Panama City for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • nightlife

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. Brisbane 55, Panama City 44: Brisbane leads by 11 points.
Food & drink. Brisbane 60, Panama City 57: Brisbane leads by 3 points.
Culture & sights. Brisbane 42, Panama City 62: Panama City leads by 20 points.
Nightlife. Brisbane 55, Panama City 62: Panama City leads by 7 points.
Nature & outdoors. Brisbane and Panama City are level on 74.
Day trips. Brisbane and Panama City are level on 50.
Good for families. Brisbane 78, Panama City 45: Brisbane leads by 33 points.
Getting around. Brisbane 62, Panama City 40: Brisbane leads by 22 points.
Shopping & style. Brisbane 45, Panama City 52: Panama City leads by 7 points.
Affordability. Brisbane 33, Panama City 55: Panama City leads by 22 points.
Live music & performing arts. Brisbane 55, Panama City 34: Brisbane leads by 21 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Brisbane 40, Panama City 22: Brisbane leads by 18 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Brisbane and Panama City.

Your match

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

Brisbane
Best match
54match

Wins on families and getting around with your weighting.

Panama City
50match

Wins on prices and culture and sights with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Brisbane in July

22 °Cdaytime high
10 °Cnight-time low
27 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
20 °Csea
11 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
BrisbanePanama 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. Brisbane: 1991-2020 normals, Brisbane (4.5 km from centre). Panama City: 1991-2020 normals, Tocumen (20.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBrisbanePanama City
Official languageEnglishSpanish
CurrencyAustralian Dollar (AUD)Balboa (PAB)
SocketsI230 V, 50 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+10UTC-5
Emergency number000911
Elevation0 m20 m
Main airportBrisbane International Airport (BNE)13 km from centre88 non-stop destinationsTocumen International Airport (PTY)20 km from centre92 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureBrisbanePanama City
City population2,706,9661,540,000
People per km²1715,600
Museums within 10 km1610
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
Swim season, months above 21 °C9 months12 months

Where else could you go?

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