VacationSelector
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
The Eiffel Tower from the Trocadéro, Paris
ParisThe Eiffel Tower from the Trocadéro

Photos: Panama City by Ayaita, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Paris by Efrem Efre, Pexels License.

Panama City or Paris?

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 Panama City for

  • beaches
  • prices
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Paris for

  • live music and the arts
  • getting around
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Paris’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. Panama City 44, Paris 9: Panama City leads by 35 points.
Food & drink. Panama City 57, Paris 96: Paris leads by 39 points.
Culture & sights. Panama City 62, Paris 97: Paris leads by 35 points.
Nightlife. Panama City 62, Paris 80: Paris leads by 18 points.
Nature & outdoors. Panama City 74, Paris 52: Panama City leads by 22 points.
Day trips. Panama City 50, Paris 92: Paris leads by 42 points.
Good for families. Panama City 45, Paris 79: Paris leads by 34 points.
Getting around. Panama City 40, Paris 88: Paris leads by 48 points.
Shopping & style. Panama City 52, Paris 98: Paris leads by 46 points.
Affordability. Panama City 55, Paris 25: Panama City leads by 30 points.
Live music & performing arts. Panama City 34, Paris 88: Paris leads by 54 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Panama City 22, Paris 40: Paris leads by 18 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Panama City and Paris.

Your match

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

Panama City
50match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

Paris
Best match
70match

Wins on live music and the arts and getting around with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Panama City in July

31 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
161 mmrain in the month
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Paris in July

26 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
58 mmrain in the month
No seasea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400500JFMAMJJASOND
Panama CityParis

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. Panama City: 1991-2020 normals, Tocumen (20.4 km from centre). Paris: 1991-2020 normals, Paris-Montsouris (4.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePanama CityParis
Official languageSpanishFrench
CurrencyBalboa (PAB)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzCE230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation20 m27 m
Main airportTocumen International Airport (PTY)20 km from centre92 non-stop destinationsCharles de Gaulle International Airport (CDG)22 km from centre277 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasurePanama CityParis
City population1,540,0002,103,778
People per km²5,60019,960
Museums within 10 km10251
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km24
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months-

Where else could you go?

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