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 Treasury, Al-Khazneh, cut into the rock, Petra
PetraThe Treasury, Al-Khazneh, cut into the rock

Photos: Panama City by Ayaita, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Petra by Yasir Gürbüz, Pexels License.

Panama City or Petra?

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

  • nightlife
  • beaches
  • food and drink

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

Choose Petra for

  • culture and sights
  • wellness
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Petra’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, Petra 5: Panama City leads by 39 points.
Food & drink. Panama City 57, Petra 22: Panama City leads by 35 points.
Culture & sights. Panama City 62, Petra 85: Petra leads by 23 points.
Nightlife. Panama City 62, Petra 5: Panama City leads by 57 points.
Nature & outdoors. Panama City 74, Petra 78: Petra leads by 4 points.
Day trips. Panama City 50, Petra 30: Panama City leads by 20 points.
Good for families. Panama City 45, Petra 25: Panama City leads by 20 points.
Getting around. Panama City 40, Petra 25: Panama City leads by 15 points.
Shopping & style. Panama City 52, Petra 18: Panama City leads by 34 points.
Affordability. Panama City 55, Petra 45: Panama City leads by 10 points.
Live music & performing arts. Panama City 34, Petra 10: Panama City leads by 24 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Panama City 22, Petra 28: Petra leads by 6 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Panama City and Petra.

Your match

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

Panama City
Best match
50match

Wins on nightlife and beaches with your weighting.

Petra
31match

Wins on culture and sights and wellness 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

Petra in July

35 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
No seasea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400500JFMAMJJASOND
Panama CityPetra

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.

Petra's temperatures are measured 34 km from the centre, at Ma'An.

Petra's station stands 219 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer than the figures say.

Petra 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). Petra: 1991-2020 normals, Ma'An (33.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePanama CityPetra
Official languageSpanishArabic
CurrencyBalboa (PAB)Jordanian Dinar (JOD)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzBCFGJ230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+3
Emergency number911911
Elevation20 m850 m
Main airportTocumen International Airport (PTY)20 km from centre92 non-stop destinationsKing Hussein International Airport (AQJ)90 km from centre5 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days-

By the numbers

MeasurePanama CityPetra
City population1,540,000-
People per km²5,600-
Museums within 10 km102
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
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 Petra 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. 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.