VacationSelector
Palermo Cathedral, Palermo
PalermoPalermo Cathedral
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: Palermo by Antonino Giangrasso, Pexels License; Panama City by Ayaita, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Palermo 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 Palermo for

  • day trips
  • beaches
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Panama City for

  • shopping
  • nightlife
  • 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. Palermo 77, Panama City 44: Palermo leads by 33 points.
Food & drink. Palermo 81, Panama City 57: Palermo leads by 24 points.
Culture & sights. Palermo 80, Panama City 62: Palermo leads by 18 points.
Nightlife. Palermo 58, Panama City 62: Panama City leads by 4 points.
Nature & outdoors. Palermo 72, Panama City 74: Panama City leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Palermo 84, Panama City 50: Palermo leads by 34 points.
Good for families. Palermo 44, Panama City 45: Panama City leads by 1 points.
Getting around. Palermo 50, Panama City 40: Palermo leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Palermo 44, Panama City 52: Panama City leads by 8 points.
Affordability. Palermo 63, Panama City 55: Palermo leads by 8 points.
Live music & performing arts. Palermo 62, Panama City 34: Palermo leads by 28 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Palermo 30, Panama City 22: Palermo leads by 8 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Palermo and Panama City.

Your match

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

Palermo
Best match
62match

Wins on day trips and beaches with your weighting.

Panama City
50match

Wins on shopping and nightlife with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Palermo in July

29 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
2 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
26 °Csea
15 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
PalermoPanama City

Where the figures come from

Palermo 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.

Palermo's sunshine is measured 67 km from the centre, at Ustica.

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. Palermo: 1991-2020 (sunshine 1961-1990) normals, Palermo / Punta Raisi (24.1 km from centre). Panama City: 1991-2020 normals, Tocumen (20.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePalermoPanama City
Official languageItalianSpanish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Balboa (PAB)
SocketsCFL230 V, 50 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-5
Emergency number112911
Elevation14 m20 m
Main airportFalcone–Borsellino Airport (PMO)25 km from centre106 non-stop destinationsTocumen International Airport (PTY)20 km from centre92 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasurePalermoPanama City
City population630,1671,540,000
People per km²3,9245,600
Museums within 10 km4210
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km12
Swim season, months above 21 °C5 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Palermo 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). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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.