VacationSelector
Big Ben and Westminster Bridge, London
LondonBig Ben and Westminster Bridge
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: London by AXP Photography, Pexels License; Panama City by Ayaita, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

London 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 London for

  • live music and the arts
  • getting around
  • shopping

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

Choose Panama City for

  • prices
  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors

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. London 25, Panama City 44: Panama City leads by 19 points.
Food & drink. London 84, Panama City 57: London leads by 27 points.
Culture & sights. London 94, Panama City 62: London leads by 32 points.
Nightlife. London 88, Panama City 62: London leads by 26 points.
Nature & outdoors. London 57, Panama City 74: Panama City leads by 17 points.
Day trips. London 90, Panama City 50: London leads by 40 points.
Good for families. London 82, Panama City 45: London leads by 37 points.
Getting around. London 85, Panama City 40: London leads by 45 points.
Shopping & style. London 95, Panama City 52: London leads by 43 points.
Affordability. London 15, Panama City 55: Panama City leads by 40 points.
Live music & performing arts. London 98, Panama City 34: London leads by 64 points.
Wellness & relaxation. London 40, Panama City 22: London leads by 18 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: London and Panama City.

Your match

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

London
Best match
71match

Wins on live music and the arts and getting around with your weighting.

Panama City
50match

Wins on prices and beaches with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

London in July

23 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
46 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
No seasea
16 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
LondonPanama 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. London: 1992-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, London Weather Centre (1.3 km from centre). Panama City: 1991-2020 normals, Tocumen (20.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLondonPanama City
Official languageEnglishSpanish
CurrencyPound Sterling (GBP)Balboa (PAB)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC-5
Emergency number112 or 999911
Elevation4 m20 m
Main airportLondon Heathrow Airport (LHR)23 km from centre224 non-stop destinationsTocumen International Airport (PTY)20 km from centre92 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year8 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureLondonPanama City
City population8,799,7281,540,000
People per km²5,5985,600
Museums within 10 km21610
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km42
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 London 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. 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. 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.

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.