VacationSelector
The wide beach and its hotels in morning light, Daytona Beach
Daytona BeachThe wide beach and its hotels in morning light
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: Daytona Beach by Han Zheng, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Panama City by Ayaita, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Daytona Beach 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 Daytona Beach for

  • beaches
  • day trips
  • families

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

Choose Panama City for

  • culture and sights
  • shopping
  • 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. Daytona Beach 80, Panama City 44: Daytona Beach leads by 36 points.
Food & drink. Daytona Beach 36, Panama City 57: Panama City leads by 21 points.
Culture & sights. Daytona Beach 30, Panama City 62: Panama City leads by 32 points.
Nightlife. Daytona Beach 40, Panama City 62: Panama City leads by 22 points.
Nature & outdoors. Daytona Beach 56, Panama City 74: Panama City leads by 18 points.
Day trips. Daytona Beach 66, Panama City 50: Daytona Beach leads by 16 points.
Good for families. Daytona Beach 60, Panama City 45: Daytona Beach leads by 15 points.
Getting around. Daytona Beach 18, Panama City 40: Panama City leads by 22 points.
Shopping & style. Daytona Beach 27, Panama City 52: Panama City leads by 25 points.
Affordability. Daytona Beach 46, Panama City 55: Panama City leads by 9 points.
Live music & performing arts. Daytona Beach 30, Panama City 34: Panama City leads by 4 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Daytona Beach 30, Panama City 22: Daytona Beach leads by 8 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Daytona Beach and Panama City.

Your match

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

Daytona Beach
43match

Wins on beaches and day trips with your weighting.

Panama City
Best match
50match

Wins on culture and sights and shopping with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Daytona Beach in July

33 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
153 mmrain in the month
28 °Csea
14 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
Daytona BeachPanama 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. Daytona Beach: 1991-2020 normals, Daytona Beach / Mansfield Mobile Home Park (4.9 km from centre). Panama City: 1991-2020 normals, Tocumen (20.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureDaytona BeachPanama City
Official language-Spanish
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Balboa (PAB)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC-5
Emergency number911911
Elevation4 m20 m
Main airportDaytona Beach International Airport (DAB)5 km from centre8 non-stop destinationsTocumen International Airport (PTY)20 km from centre92 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureDaytona BeachPanama City
City population72,6471,540,000
People per km²4405,600
Museums within 10 km610
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 Daytona Beach 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.