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 Sanctuary of Truth by the sea, Pattaya
PattayaThe Sanctuary of Truth by the sea

Photos: Panama City by Ayaita, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Pattaya by Matrix, Pexels License.

Panama City or Pattaya?

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

  • nature and the outdoors
  • culture and sights
  • shopping

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

Choose Pattaya for

  • wellness
  • prices
  • beaches

What lies behind each score is written up on Pattaya’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, Pattaya 66: Pattaya leads by 22 points.
Food & drink. Panama City 57, Pattaya 58: Pattaya leads by 1 points.
Culture & sights. Panama City 62, Pattaya 30: Panama City leads by 32 points.
Nightlife. Panama City 62, Pattaya 76: Pattaya leads by 14 points.
Nature & outdoors. Panama City 74, Pattaya 40: Panama City leads by 34 points.
Day trips. Panama City 50, Pattaya 52: Pattaya leads by 2 points.
Good for families. Panama City 45, Pattaya 55: Pattaya leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Panama City 40, Pattaya 36: Panama City leads by 4 points.
Shopping & style. Panama City 52, Pattaya 42: Panama City leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Panama City 55, Pattaya 84: Pattaya leads by 29 points.
Live music & performing arts. Panama City 34, Pattaya 30: Panama City leads by 4 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Panama City 22, Pattaya 58: Pattaya leads by 36 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Panama City and Pattaya.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Panama City
50match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and culture and sights with your weighting.

Pattaya
52match

Wins on wellness 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.

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

Pattaya in July

32 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
102 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
30 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400500JFMAMJJASOND
Panama CityPattaya

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.

Pattaya's temperatures are measured 31 km from the centre, at Sattahip.

Pattaya 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.

Pattaya's sunshine is measured 86 km from the centre, at Bangna Agromet / Ban Khlong Samrong.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Panama City: 1991-2020 normals, Tocumen (20.4 km from centre). Pattaya: 1971-2000 (sunshine 1961-1990, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Sattahip (31.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePanama CityPattaya
Official languageSpanishThai
CurrencyBalboa (PAB)Baht (THB)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzABCF220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+7
Emergency number911Police 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199
Elevation20 m35 m
Main airportTocumen International Airport (PTY)20 km from centre92 non-stop destinationsSuvarnabhumi Airport (BKK)83 km from centre150 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days-

By the numbers

MeasurePanama CityPattaya
City population1,540,000119,532
People per km²5,600-
Museums within 10 km100
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
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 Panama City or Pattaya 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. Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national sources. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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.