VacationSelector
The arch at the entrance to the boardwalk, Ocean City, Maryland
Ocean City, MarylandThe arch at the entrance to the boardwalk
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: Ocean City, Maryland by Dough4872, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Panama City by Ayaita, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Ocean City, Maryland 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 Ocean City, Maryland for

  • beaches
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Ocean City, Maryland’s own page.

Choose Panama City for

  • culture and sights
  • shopping
  • 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. Ocean City, Maryland 78, Panama City 44: Ocean City, Maryland leads by 34 points.
Food & drink. Ocean City, Maryland 40, Panama City 57: Panama City leads by 17 points.
Culture & sights. Ocean City, Maryland 14, Panama City 62: Panama City leads by 48 points.
Nightlife. Ocean City, Maryland 45, Panama City 62: Panama City leads by 17 points.
Nature & outdoors. Ocean City, Maryland 50, Panama City 74: Panama City leads by 24 points.
Day trips. Ocean City, Maryland 42, Panama City 50: Panama City leads by 8 points.
Good for families. Ocean City, Maryland 78, Panama City 45: Ocean City, Maryland leads by 33 points.
Getting around. Ocean City, Maryland 34, Panama City 40: Panama City leads by 6 points.
Shopping & style. Ocean City, Maryland 24, Panama City 52: Panama City leads by 28 points.
Affordability. Ocean City, Maryland 40, Panama City 55: Panama City leads by 15 points.
Live music & performing arts. Ocean City, Maryland 18, Panama City 34: Panama City leads by 16 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Ocean City, Maryland and Panama City are level on 22.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Ocean City, Maryland and Panama City.

Your match

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

Ocean City, Maryland
40match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

Panama City
Best match
50match

Wins on culture and sights 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.

Ocean City, Maryland in July

29 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
96 mmrain in the month
24 °Csea
15 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
Ocean City, MarylandPanama City

Where the figures come from

Ocean City, Maryland 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.

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. Ocean City, Maryland: 2006-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Ocean City / Morris Mobile Home Park (10.2 km from centre). Panama City: 1991-2020 normals, Tocumen (20.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureOcean City, MarylandPanama City
Official language-Spanish
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Balboa (PAB)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC-5
Emergency number911911
Elevation2 m20 m
Main airportSalisbury Ocean City Wicomico Regional Airport (SBY)39 km from centre4 non-stop destinationsTocumen International Airport (PTY)20 km from centre92 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureOcean City, MarylandPanama City
City population6,8441,540,000
People per km²735,600
Museums within 10 km010
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
Swim season, months above 21 °C3 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Ocean City, Maryland 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.