VacationSelector
The junk Duk Ling in Victoria Harbour, Hong Kong
Hong KongThe junk Duk Ling in Victoria Harbour
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: Hong Kong by LN9267, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Panama City by Ayaita, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Hong Kong 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 Hong Kong for

  • getting around
  • shopping
  • food and drink

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

Choose Panama City for

  • prices
  • 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. Hong Kong 50, Panama City 44: Hong Kong leads by 6 points.
Food & drink. Hong Kong 90, Panama City 57: Hong Kong leads by 33 points.
Culture & sights. Hong Kong 60, Panama City 62: Panama City leads by 2 points.
Nightlife. Hong Kong 68, Panama City 62: Hong Kong leads by 6 points.
Nature & outdoors. Hong Kong 80, Panama City 74: Hong Kong leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Hong Kong 68, Panama City 50: Hong Kong leads by 18 points.
Good for families. Hong Kong 75, Panama City 45: Hong Kong leads by 30 points.
Getting around. Hong Kong 97, Panama City 40: Hong Kong leads by 57 points.
Shopping & style. Hong Kong 88, Panama City 52: Hong Kong leads by 36 points.
Affordability. Hong Kong 27, Panama City 55: Panama City leads by 28 points.
Live music & performing arts. Hong Kong 55, Panama City 34: Hong Kong leads by 21 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Hong Kong 42, Panama City 22: Hong Kong leads by 20 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Hong Kong and Panama City.

Your match

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

Hong Kong
Best match
67match

Wins on getting around and shopping 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.

Hong Kong in July

31 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
381 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
29 °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
Hong KongPanama 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. Hong Kong: 1991-2020 normals, King's Park (4.4 km from centre). Panama City: 1991-2020 normals, Tocumen (20.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureHong KongPanama City
Official languageStandard ChineseSpanish
CurrencyHong Kong Dollar (HKD)Balboa (PAB)
SocketsG220 V, 50 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+8UTC-5
Emergency number999911
Elevation7 m20 m
Main airportHong Kong International Airport (HKG)25 km from centre148 non-stop destinationsTocumen International Airport (PTY)20 km from centre92 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year17 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureHong KongPanama City
City population7,413,0701,540,000
People per km²-5,600
Museums within 10 km3910
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
Swim season, months above 21 °C8 months12 months

Where else could you go?

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