VacationSelector
La Paz
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: Panama City by Ayaita, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

La Paz 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 La Paz for

  • prices
  • nature and the outdoors
  • getting around

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

Choose Panama City for

  • beaches
  • families
  • 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. La Paz 3, Panama City 44: Panama City leads by 41 points.
Food & drink. La Paz 50, Panama City 57: Panama City leads by 7 points.
Culture & sights. La Paz 52, Panama City 62: Panama City leads by 10 points.
Nightlife. La Paz 38, Panama City 62: Panama City leads by 24 points.
Nature & outdoors. La Paz 82, Panama City 74: La Paz leads by 8 points.
Day trips. La Paz 40, Panama City 50: Panama City leads by 10 points.
Good for families. La Paz 10, Panama City 45: Panama City leads by 35 points.
Getting around. La Paz 45, Panama City 40: La Paz leads by 5 points.
Shopping & style. La Paz 45, Panama City 52: Panama City leads by 7 points.
Affordability. La Paz 92, Panama City 55: La Paz leads by 37 points.
Live music & performing arts. La Paz 35, Panama City 34: La Paz leads by 1 points.
Wellness & relaxation. La Paz 12, Panama City 22: Panama City leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: La Paz and Panama City.

Your match

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

La Paz
42match

Wins on prices and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Panama City
Best match
50match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

La Paz in July

13 °Cdaytime high
-2 °Cnight-time low
16 mmrain in the month
No seasea
11 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
La PazPanama City

Where the figures come from

La Paz has no weather station within reach, so its figures come from a gridded climate model rather than a measured record, and read a broad area rather than the city itself.

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. La Paz: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km. Panama City: 1991-2020 normals, Tocumen (20.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLa PazPanama City
Official languageSpanish, Aymara, Quechua, GuaraniSpanish
CurrencyBoliviano (BOB)Balboa (PAB)
SocketsAC50 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-4UTC-5
Emergency number911911
Elevation3,640 m20 m
Main airportEl Alto International Airport (LPB)6 km from centre12 non-stop destinationsTocumen International Airport (PTY)20 km from centre92 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureLa PazPanama City
City population755,7321,540,000
People per km²1,6015,600
Museums within 10 km2110
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km12
Swim season, months above 21 °C-12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow La Paz or Panama City somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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. Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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.