VacationSelector
The Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier, Los Angeles
Los AngelesThe Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier
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: Los Angeles by Domenico Convertini, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Panama City by Ayaita, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Los Angeles 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 Los Angeles for

  • live music and the arts
  • families
  • wellness

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

Choose Panama City for

  • prices
  • getting around

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. Los Angeles 60, Panama City 44: Los Angeles leads by 16 points.
Food & drink. Los Angeles 84, Panama City 57: Los Angeles leads by 27 points.
Culture & sights. Los Angeles 66, Panama City 62: Los Angeles leads by 4 points.
Nightlife. Los Angeles 67, Panama City 62: Los Angeles leads by 5 points.
Nature & outdoors. Los Angeles 80, Panama City 74: Los Angeles leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Los Angeles 60, Panama City 50: Los Angeles leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Los Angeles 84, Panama City 45: Los Angeles leads by 39 points.
Getting around. Los Angeles 25, Panama City 40: Panama City leads by 15 points.
Shopping & style. Los Angeles 80, Panama City 52: Los Angeles leads by 28 points.
Affordability. Los Angeles 24, Panama City 55: Panama City leads by 31 points.
Live music & performing arts. Los Angeles 83, Panama City 34: Los Angeles leads by 49 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Los Angeles 60, Panama City 22: Los Angeles leads by 38 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Los Angeles and Panama City.

Your match

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

Los Angeles
Best match
64match

Wins on live music and the arts and families with your weighting.

Panama City
50match

Wins on prices and getting around with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Los Angeles in July

24 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
20 °Csea
14 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
Los AngelesPanama 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. Los Angeles: 1991-2020 normals, Los Angeles Airport (18.5 km from centre). Panama City: 1991-2020 normals, Tocumen (20.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLos AngelesPanama City
Official language-Spanish
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Balboa (PAB)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-8, UTC-7 in summerUTC-5
Emergency number911911
Elevation106 m20 m
Main airportLos Angeles International Airport (LAX)19 km from centre177 non-stop destinationsTocumen International Airport (PTY)20 km from centre92 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureLos AngelesPanama City
City population3,898,7471,540,000
People per km²2,9945,600
Museums within 10 km3910
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km12
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 Los Angeles 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.