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 skyline over the Schuylkill, Philadelphia
PhiladelphiaThe skyline over the Schuylkill

Photos: Panama City by Ayaita, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Philadelphia by Trev W. Adams, Pexels License.

Panama City or Philadelphia?

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
  • prices
  • beaches

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

Choose Philadelphia for

  • live music and the arts
  • day trips
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Philadelphia’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, Philadelphia 36: Panama City leads by 8 points.
Food & drink. Panama City 57, Philadelphia 62: Philadelphia leads by 5 points.
Culture & sights. Panama City 62, Philadelphia 72: Philadelphia leads by 10 points.
Nightlife. Panama City 62, Philadelphia 55: Panama City leads by 7 points.
Nature & outdoors. Panama City 74, Philadelphia 52: Panama City leads by 22 points.
Day trips. Panama City 50, Philadelphia 80: Philadelphia leads by 30 points.
Good for families. Panama City 45, Philadelphia 68: Philadelphia leads by 23 points.
Getting around. Panama City 40, Philadelphia 66: Philadelphia leads by 26 points.
Shopping & style. Panama City 52, Philadelphia 57: Philadelphia leads by 5 points.
Affordability. Panama City 55, Philadelphia 40: Panama City leads by 15 points.
Live music & performing arts. Panama City 34, Philadelphia 72: Philadelphia leads by 38 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Panama City 22, Philadelphia 26: Philadelphia leads by 4 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Panama City and Philadelphia.

Your match

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

Panama City
50match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and prices with your weighting.

Philadelphia
Best match
57match

Wins on live music and the arts and day trips 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

Philadelphia in July

31 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
111 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400500JFMAMJJASOND
Panama CityPhiladelphia

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). Philadelphia: 1991-2020 normals, Philadelphia International Airport (11.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePanama CityPhiladelphia
Official languageSpanish-
CurrencyBalboa (PAB)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation20 m12 m
Main airportTocumen International Airport (PTY)20 km from centre92 non-stop destinationsPhiladelphia International Airport (PHL)11 km from centre129 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasurePanama CityPhiladelphia
City population1,540,0001,603,797
People per km²5,6004,339
Museums within 10 km1054
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 Philadelphia 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.