VacationSelector
Palm Springs
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: Panama City by Ayaita, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Palm Springs 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 Springs for

  • wellness
  • live music and the arts
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Panama City for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • prices

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 Springs 7, Panama City 44: Panama City leads by 37 points.
Food & drink. Palm Springs 40, Panama City 57: Panama City leads by 17 points.
Culture & sights. Palm Springs 42, Panama City 62: Panama City leads by 20 points.
Nightlife. Palm Springs 36, Panama City 62: Panama City leads by 26 points.
Nature & outdoors. Palm Springs 78, Panama City 74: Palm Springs leads by 4 points.
Day trips. Palm Springs 38, Panama City 50: Panama City leads by 12 points.
Good for families. Palm Springs 40, Panama City 45: Panama City leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Palm Springs 22, Panama City 40: Panama City leads by 18 points.
Shopping & style. Palm Springs 44, Panama City 52: Panama City leads by 8 points.
Affordability. Palm Springs 32, Panama City 55: Panama City leads by 23 points.
Live music & performing arts. Palm Springs 40, Panama City 34: Palm Springs leads by 6 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Palm Springs 80, Panama City 22: Palm Springs leads by 58 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Palm Springs and Panama City.

Your match

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

Palm Springs
42match

Wins on wellness and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Panama City
Best match
50match

Wins on beaches 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 Springs in July

42 °Cdaytime high
28 °Cnight-time low
5 mmrain in the month
No seasea
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°50°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400500JFMAMJJASOND
Palm SpringsPanama City

Where the figures come from

Palm Springs 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. Palm Springs: 2006-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Palm Springs (2.3 km from centre). Panama City: 1991-2020 normals, Tocumen (20.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePalm SpringsPanama 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
Elevation146 m20 m
Main airportPalm Springs International Airport (PSP)2 km from centre29 non-stop destinationsTocumen International Airport (PTY)20 km from centre92 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasurePalm SpringsPanama City
City population44,5751,540,000
People per km²1815,600
Museums within 10 km310
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
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 Palm Springs 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.