VacationSelector
Praia Mole in Florianopolis, Florianopolis
FlorianopolisPraia Mole in Florianopolis
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: Florianopolis by Papa Pic, CC0; Panama City by Ayaita, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Florianopolis 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 Florianopolis for

  • beaches
  • wellness
  • families

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

Choose Panama City for

  • culture and sights
  • shopping
  • getting around

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. Florianopolis 85, Panama City 44: Florianopolis leads by 41 points.
Food & drink. Florianopolis 58, Panama City 57: Florianopolis leads by 1 points.
Culture & sights. Florianopolis 33, Panama City 62: Panama City leads by 29 points.
Nightlife. Florianopolis 60, Panama City 62: Panama City leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Florianopolis 78, Panama City 74: Florianopolis leads by 4 points.
Day trips. Florianopolis and Panama City are level on 50.
Good for families. Florianopolis 60, Panama City 45: Florianopolis leads by 15 points.
Getting around. Florianopolis 28, Panama City 40: Panama City leads by 12 points.
Shopping & style. Florianopolis 33, Panama City 52: Panama City leads by 19 points.
Affordability. Florianopolis 60, Panama City 55: Florianopolis leads by 5 points.
Live music & performing arts. Florianopolis 28, Panama City 34: Panama City leads by 6 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Florianopolis 45, Panama City 22: Florianopolis leads by 23 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Florianopolis and Panama City.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Florianopolis
52match

Wins on beaches and wellness with your weighting.

Panama City
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.

Florianopolis in July

21 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
91 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
18 °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
FlorianopolisPanama 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. Florianopolis: 1991-2020 normals, Florianopolis (1.7 km from centre). Panama City: 1991-2020 normals, Tocumen (20.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureFlorianopolisPanama City
Official languagePortugueseSpanish
CurrencyBrazilian Real (BRL)Balboa (PAB)
SocketsCN60 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-3UTC-5
Emergency numberPolice 190, ambulance 192, fire 193911
Elevation3 m20 m
Main airportHercílio Luz International Airport (FLN)9 km from centre21 non-stop destinationsTocumen International Airport (PTY)20 km from centre92 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureFlorianopolisPanama City
City population587,4861,540,000
People per km²8705,600
Museums within 10 km1110
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
Swim season, months above 21 °C7 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Florianopolis 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.