VacationSelector
Parliament Hill across the Ottawa River, Ottawa
OttawaParliament Hill across the Ottawa River
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: Ottawa by Dennis G. Jarvis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Panama City by Ayaita, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Ottawa 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 Ottawa for

  • wellness
  • families
  • getting around

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

Choose Panama City for

  • nightlife
  • prices
  • food and drink

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. Ottawa 35, Panama City 44: Panama City leads by 9 points.
Food & drink. Ottawa 45, Panama City 57: Panama City leads by 12 points.
Culture & sights. Ottawa and Panama City are level on 62.
Nightlife. Ottawa 35, Panama City 62: Panama City leads by 27 points.
Nature & outdoors. Ottawa 68, Panama City 74: Panama City leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Ottawa 55, Panama City 50: Ottawa leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Ottawa 68, Panama City 45: Ottawa leads by 23 points.
Getting around. Ottawa 62, Panama City 40: Ottawa leads by 22 points.
Shopping & style. Ottawa 40, Panama City 52: Panama City leads by 12 points.
Affordability. Ottawa 40, Panama City 55: Panama City leads by 15 points.
Live music & performing arts. Ottawa 52, Panama City 34: Ottawa leads by 18 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Ottawa 55, Panama City 22: Ottawa leads by 33 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Ottawa 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

Ottawa
51match

Wins on wellness and families with your weighting.

Panama City
50match

Wins on nightlife 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.

Ottawa in July

27 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
82 mmrain in the month
No seasea
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

-10°0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400500JFMAMJJASOND
OttawaPanama 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. Ottawa: 1991-2020 normals, Ottawa CDA RCS (5.3 km from centre). Panama City: 1991-2020 normals, Tocumen (20.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureOttawaPanama City
Official languageFrench, EnglishSpanish
CurrencyCanadian Dollar (CAD)Balboa (PAB)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC-5
Emergency number911911
Elevation70 m20 m
Main airportOttawa Macdonald-Cartier International Airport (YOW)12 km from centre46 non-stop destinationsTocumen International Airport (PTY)20 km from centre92 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureOttawaPanama City
City population1,017,4491,540,000
People per km²3665,600
Museums within 10 km2010
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km12
Swim season, months above 21 °C-12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Ottawa 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. 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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.