VacationSelector
Beira Lake with Seema Malaka and the Lotus Tower, Colombo
ColomboBeira Lake with Seema Malaka and the Lotus Tower
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: Colombo by Mohamed Ansaf, Pexels License; Panama City by Ayaita, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Colombo 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 Colombo for

  • wellness
  • prices
  • beaches

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

Choose Panama City for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • nightlife
  • culture and sights

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. Colombo 55, Panama City 44: Colombo leads by 11 points.
Food & drink. Colombo 66, Panama City 57: Colombo leads by 9 points.
Culture & sights. Colombo 45, Panama City 62: Panama City leads by 17 points.
Nightlife. Colombo 35, Panama City 62: Panama City leads by 27 points.
Nature & outdoors. Colombo 32, Panama City 74: Panama City leads by 42 points.
Day trips. Colombo and Panama City are level on 50.
Good for families. Colombo 35, Panama City 45: Panama City leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Colombo 35, Panama City 40: Panama City leads by 5 points.
Shopping & style. Colombo 45, Panama City 52: Panama City leads by 7 points.
Affordability. Colombo 78, Panama City 55: Colombo leads by 23 points.
Live music & performing arts. Colombo 30, Panama City 34: Panama City leads by 4 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Colombo 48, Panama City 22: Colombo leads by 26 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Colombo and Panama City.

Your match

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

Colombo
46match

Wins on wellness and prices with your weighting.

Panama City
Best match
50match

Wins on nature and the outdoors 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.

Colombo in July

30 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
128 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
28 °Csea
13 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
ColomboPanama 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. Colombo: 1991-2020 normals, Colombo (3 km from centre). Panama City: 1991-2020 normals, Tocumen (20.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureColomboPanama City
Official languageTamil, SinhalaSpanish
CurrencySri Lanka Rupee (LKR)Balboa (PAB)
SocketsGM230 V, 50 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+5:30UTC-5
Emergency numberPolice 119, ambulance 110, fire 110911
Elevation1 m20 m
Main airportBandaranaike International Colombo Airport (CMB)28 km from centre56 non-stop destinationsTocumen International Airport (PTY)20 km from centre92 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-14 days

By the numbers

MeasureColomboPanama City
City population647,5571,540,000
People per km²17,3615,600
Museums within 10 km1010
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 Colombo 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). 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. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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.