VacationSelector
The Old Town Clock on Citadel Hill, Halifax
HalifaxThe Old Town Clock on Citadel Hill
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: Halifax by Danieljmacdonald, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Panama City by Ayaita, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Halifax 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 Halifax for

  • day trips
  • live music and the arts
  • families

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

Choose Panama City for

  • culture and sights
  • shopping
  • prices

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. Halifax 32, Panama City 44: Panama City leads by 12 points.
Food & drink. Halifax 50, Panama City 57: Panama City leads by 7 points.
Culture & sights. Halifax 42, Panama City 62: Panama City leads by 20 points.
Nightlife. Halifax 46, Panama City 62: Panama City leads by 16 points.
Nature & outdoors. Halifax 62, Panama City 74: Panama City leads by 12 points.
Day trips. Halifax 63, Panama City 50: Halifax leads by 13 points.
Good for families. Halifax 55, Panama City 45: Halifax leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Halifax 48, Panama City 40: Halifax leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. Halifax 35, Panama City 52: Panama City leads by 17 points.
Affordability. Halifax 38, Panama City 55: Panama City leads by 17 points.
Live music & performing arts. Halifax 46, Panama City 34: Halifax leads by 12 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Halifax 28, Panama City 22: Halifax leads by 6 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Halifax and Panama City.

Your match

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

Halifax
45match

Wins on day trips and live music and the arts 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.

Halifax in July

22 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
101 mmrain in the month
14 °Csea
15 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
HalifaxPanama 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. Halifax: 1991-2020 normals, Shearwater Airport (6 km from centre). Panama City: 1991-2020 normals, Tocumen (20.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureHalifaxPanama City
Official languageFrench, EnglishSpanish
CurrencyCanadian Dollar (CAD)Balboa (PAB)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-4, UTC-3 in summerUTC-5
Emergency number911911
Elevation28 m20 m
Main airportHalifax / Stanfield International Airport (YHZ)26 km from centre40 non-stop destinationsTocumen International Airport (PTY)20 km from centre92 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureHalifaxPanama City
City population440,0721,540,000
People per km²805,600
Museums within 10 km1510
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone12 months

Where else could you go?

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