VacationSelector
Palacio Salvo under a blue sky, Montevideo
MontevideoPalacio Salvo under a blue sky
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: Montevideo by Andrés Franchi Ugart…, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Panama City by Ayaita, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Montevideo 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 Montevideo for

  • live music and the arts
  • wellness
  • getting around

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

Choose Panama City for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • shopping
  • prices

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. Montevideo 55, Panama City 44: Montevideo leads by 11 points.
Food & drink. Montevideo and Panama City are level on 57.
Culture & sights. Montevideo 54, Panama City 62: Panama City leads by 8 points.
Nightlife. Montevideo 50, Panama City 62: Panama City leads by 12 points.
Nature & outdoors. Montevideo 34, Panama City 74: Panama City leads by 40 points.
Day trips. Montevideo 55, Panama City 50: Montevideo leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Montevideo 55, Panama City 45: Montevideo leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Montevideo 54, Panama City 40: Montevideo leads by 14 points.
Shopping & style. Montevideo 36, Panama City 52: Panama City leads by 16 points.
Affordability. Montevideo 42, Panama City 55: Panama City leads by 13 points.
Live music & performing arts. Montevideo 57, Panama City 34: Montevideo leads by 23 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Montevideo 38, Panama City 22: Montevideo leads by 16 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Montevideo and Panama City.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Montevideo
49match

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

Panama City
50match

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

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Montevideo in July

15 °Cdaytime high
6 °Cnight-time low
99 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
11 °Csea
10 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
MontevideoPanama 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. Montevideo: 1991-2020 normals, Carrasco (19.2 km from centre). Panama City: 1991-2020 normals, Tocumen (20.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMontevideoPanama City
Official language-Spanish
CurrencyPeso Uruguayo (UYU)Balboa (PAB)
SocketsCFIL230 V, 50 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-3UTC-5
Emergency number911911
Elevation41 m20 m
Main airportCarrasco General Cesáreo L. Berisso International Airport (MVD)17 km from centre15 non-stop destinationsTocumen International Airport (PTY)20 km from centre92 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year15 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureMontevideoPanama City
City population1,302,9541,540,000
People per km²1,7855,600
Museums within 10 km3610
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km12
Swim season, months above 21 °C4 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Montevideo 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). 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.