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
Elizabeth Quay and the centre of Perth, Perth
PerthElizabeth Quay and the centre of Perth

Photos: Panama City by Ayaita, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Perth by Samuel Wiki, CC BY 4.0, cropped.

Panama City or Perth?

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

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • nightlife

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

Choose Perth for

  • beaches
  • families
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Perth’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, Perth 86: Perth leads by 42 points.
Food & drink. Panama City 57, Perth 58: Perth leads by 1 points.
Culture & sights. Panama City 62, Perth 42: Panama City leads by 20 points.
Nightlife. Panama City 62, Perth 42: Panama City leads by 20 points.
Nature & outdoors. Panama City 74, Perth 72: Panama City leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Panama City 50, Perth 48: Panama City leads by 2 points.
Good for families. Panama City 45, Perth 74: Perth leads by 29 points.
Getting around. Panama City 40, Perth 55: Perth leads by 15 points.
Shopping & style. Panama City 52, Perth 44: Panama City leads by 8 points.
Affordability. Panama City 55, Perth 28: Panama City leads by 27 points.
Live music & performing arts. Panama City 34, Perth 50: Perth leads by 16 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Panama City 22, Perth 38: Perth leads by 16 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Panama City and Perth.

Your match

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

Panama City
50match

Wins on prices and culture and sights with your weighting.

Perth
Best match
53match

Wins on beaches and families 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

Perth in July

19 °Cdaytime high
8 °Cnight-time low
145 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
20 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400500JFMAMJJASOND
Panama CityPerth

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). Perth: 1991-2020 normals, Perth (7.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePanama CityPerth
Official languageSpanishEnglish
CurrencyBalboa (PAB)Australian Dollar (AUD)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+8
Emergency number911000
Elevation20 m2 m
Main airportTocumen International Airport (PTY)20 km from centre92 non-stop destinationsPerth International Airport (PER)10 km from centre49 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasurePanama CityPerth
City population1,540,0002,141,834
People per km²5,600334
Museums within 10 km1015
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months5 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Panama City or Perth 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. 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.