VacationSelector
Waterfront houses on Harbor Island in Newport Harbor, Newport Beach
Newport BeachWaterfront houses on Harbor Island in Newport Harbor
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: Newport Beach by Don Ramey Logan, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Panama City by Ayaita, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Newport Beach 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 Newport Beach for

  • families
  • beaches
  • wellness

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

Choose Panama City for

  • culture and sights
  • prices
  • nightlife

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. Newport Beach 70, Panama City 44: Newport Beach leads by 26 points.
Food & drink. Newport Beach 50, Panama City 57: Panama City leads by 7 points.
Culture & sights. Newport Beach 20, Panama City 62: Panama City leads by 42 points.
Nightlife. Newport Beach 33, Panama City 62: Panama City leads by 29 points.
Nature & outdoors. Newport Beach 66, Panama City 74: Panama City leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Newport Beach 70, Panama City 50: Newport Beach leads by 20 points.
Good for families. Newport Beach 80, Panama City 45: Newport Beach leads by 35 points.
Getting around. Newport Beach 20, Panama City 40: Panama City leads by 20 points.
Shopping & style. Newport Beach 62, Panama City 52: Newport Beach leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Newport Beach 15, Panama City 55: Panama City leads by 40 points.
Live music & performing arts. Newport Beach 46, Panama City 34: Newport Beach leads by 12 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Newport Beach 44, Panama City 22: Newport Beach leads by 22 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Newport Beach and Panama City.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Newport Beach
48match

Wins on families and beaches with your weighting.

Panama City
50match

Wins on culture and sights and prices with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Newport Beach in July

26 °Cdaytime high
19 °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
Newport BeachPanama 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. Newport Beach: 1991-2020 (rainfall 1981-2010) normals, Santa Ana / Paularino (7.1 km from centre). Panama City: 1991-2020 normals, Tocumen (20.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureNewport BeachPanama 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
Elevation3 m20 m
Main airportJohn Wayne Orange County International Airport (SNA)7 km from centre53 non-stop destinationsTocumen International Airport (PTY)20 km from centre92 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureNewport BeachPanama City
City population85,2391,540,000
People per km²6225,600
Museums within 10 km410
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
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 Newport Beach 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.