VacationSelector
Whitehall, Henry Flagler's mansion, now the Flagler Museum, Palm Beach
Palm BeachWhitehall, Henry Flagler's mansion, now the Flagler Museum
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: Palm Beach by Khowald, CC BY 4.0, cropped; Panama City by Ayaita, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Palm 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 Palm Beach for

  • beaches
  • wellness
  • families

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

Choose Panama City for

  • prices
  • nightlife
  • culture and sights

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. Palm Beach 82, Panama City 44: Palm Beach leads by 38 points.
Food & drink. Palm Beach 47, Panama City 57: Panama City leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. Palm Beach 45, Panama City 62: Panama City leads by 17 points.
Nightlife. Palm Beach 32, Panama City 62: Panama City leads by 30 points.
Nature & outdoors. Palm Beach 58, Panama City 74: Panama City leads by 16 points.
Day trips. Palm Beach 55, Panama City 50: Palm Beach leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Palm Beach 62, Panama City 45: Palm Beach leads by 17 points.
Getting around. Palm Beach 32, Panama City 40: Panama City leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. Palm Beach 66, Panama City 52: Palm Beach leads by 14 points.
Affordability. Palm Beach 12, Panama City 55: Panama City leads by 43 points.
Live music & performing arts. Palm Beach 45, Panama City 34: Palm Beach leads by 11 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Palm Beach 55, Panama City 22: Palm Beach leads by 33 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Palm 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, 1 point apart

Palm Beach
49match

Wins on beaches and wellness with your weighting.

Panama City
50match

Wins on prices 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.

Palm Beach in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
145 mmrain in the month
29 °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
Palm 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. Palm Beach: 1991-2020 normals, Palm Beach International (6.8 km from centre). Panama City: 1991-2020 normals, Tocumen (20.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePalm BeachPanama 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 airportPresident Donald J. Trump International Airport (DJT)6 km from centre42 non-stop destinationsTocumen International Airport (PTY)20 km from centre92 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasurePalm BeachPanama City
City population9,2451,540,000
People per km²3225,600
Museums within 10 km410
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months12 months

Where else could you go?

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