VacationSelector
A yellow tram in a narrow street, Lisbon
LisbonA yellow tram in a narrow street
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: Lisbon by Riccardo Toso, Pexels License; Panama City by Ayaita, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Lisbon 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 Lisbon for

  • day trips
  • getting around
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Panama City for

Panama City does not lead in any category we score.

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. Lisbon 50, Panama City 44: Lisbon leads by 6 points.
Food & drink. Lisbon 75, Panama City 57: Lisbon leads by 18 points.
Culture & sights. Lisbon 78, Panama City 62: Lisbon leads by 16 points.
Nightlife. Lisbon 75, Panama City 62: Lisbon leads by 13 points.
Nature & outdoors. Lisbon 75, Panama City 74: Lisbon leads by 1 points.
Day trips. Lisbon 82, Panama City 50: Lisbon leads by 32 points.
Good for families. Lisbon 62, Panama City 45: Lisbon leads by 17 points.
Getting around. Lisbon 66, Panama City 40: Lisbon leads by 26 points.
Shopping & style. Lisbon 60, Panama City 52: Lisbon leads by 8 points.
Affordability. Lisbon and Panama City are level on 55.
Live music & performing arts. Lisbon 60, Panama City 34: Lisbon leads by 26 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Lisbon 36, Panama City 22: Lisbon leads by 14 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Lisbon and Panama City.

Your match

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

Lisbon
Best match
65match

Wins on day trips and getting around with your weighting.

Panama City
50match

Has no clear advantage with the weighting you have chosen.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Lisbon in July

28 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
3 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
15 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
LisbonPanama 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. Lisbon: 1991-2020 normals, Lisboa / Geof (1.1 km from centre). Panama City: 1991-2020 normals, Tocumen (20.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLisbonPanama City
Official languagePortugueseSpanish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Balboa (PAB)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC-5
Emergency number112911
Elevation100 m20 m
Main airportLisbon Humberto Delgado Airport (LIS)7 km from centre156 non-stop destinationsTocumen International Airport (PTY)20 km from centre92 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureLisbonPanama City
City population545,7961,540,000
People per km²5,4535,600
Museums within 10 km8010
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km32
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 Lisbon 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). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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. 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.