VacationSelector
The steamboat Natchez on the Mississippi, New Orleans
New OrleansThe steamboat Natchez on the Mississippi
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: New Orleans by Bernard Spragg, CC0; Panama City by Ayaita, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

New Orleans 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 New Orleans for

  • live music and the arts
  • food and drink
  • nightlife

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

Choose Panama City for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • beaches
  • 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. New Orleans 14, Panama City 44: Panama City leads by 30 points.
Food & drink. New Orleans 84, Panama City 57: New Orleans leads by 27 points.
Culture & sights. New Orleans 67, Panama City 62: New Orleans leads by 5 points.
Nightlife. New Orleans 85, Panama City 62: New Orleans leads by 23 points.
Nature & outdoors. New Orleans 42, Panama City 74: Panama City leads by 32 points.
Day trips. New Orleans 52, Panama City 50: New Orleans leads by 2 points.
Good for families. New Orleans 55, Panama City 45: New Orleans leads by 10 points.
Getting around. New Orleans 55, Panama City 40: New Orleans leads by 15 points.
Shopping & style. New Orleans 54, Panama City 52: New Orleans leads by 2 points.
Affordability. New Orleans 40, Panama City 55: Panama City leads by 15 points.
Live music & performing arts. New Orleans 80, Panama City 34: New Orleans leads by 46 points.
Wellness & relaxation. New Orleans 25, Panama City 22: New Orleans leads by 3 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: New Orleans and Panama City.

Your match

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

New Orleans
Best match
54match

Wins on live music and the arts and food and drink with your weighting.

Panama City
50match

Wins on nature and the outdoors 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.

New Orleans in July

33 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
169 mmrain in the month
30 °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
New OrleansPanama 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. New Orleans: 1991-2020 normals, New Orleans Airport (2.7 km from centre). Panama City: 1991-2020 normals, Tocumen (20.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureNew OrleansPanama City
Official language-Spanish
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Balboa (PAB)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6, UTC-5 in summerUTC-5
Emergency number911911
Elevation-2 m20 m
Main airportLouis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport (MSY)18 km from centre51 non-stop destinationsTocumen International Airport (PTY)20 km from centre92 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureNew OrleansPanama City
City population383,9971,540,000
People per km²4235,600
Museums within 10 km1610
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
Swim season, months above 21 °C7 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow New Orleans 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.