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 Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket, Phuket
PhuketThe Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket

Photos: Panama City by Ayaita, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Phuket by Mussi Katz, CC0.

Panama City or Phuket?

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

  • culture and sights
  • getting around
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Phuket for

  • wellness
  • beaches
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Phuket’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, Phuket 90: Phuket leads by 46 points.
Food & drink. Panama City 57, Phuket 66: Phuket leads by 9 points.
Culture & sights. Panama City 62, Phuket 35: Panama City leads by 27 points.
Nightlife. Panama City 62, Phuket 72: Phuket leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. Panama City 74, Phuket 80: Phuket leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Panama City 50, Phuket 45: Panama City leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Panama City 45, Phuket 65: Phuket leads by 20 points.
Getting around. Panama City 40, Phuket 22: Panama City leads by 18 points.
Shopping & style. Panama City 52, Phuket 42: Panama City leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Panama City 55, Phuket 68: Phuket leads by 13 points.
Live music & performing arts. Panama City 34, Phuket 20: Panama City leads by 14 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Panama City 22, Phuket 82: Phuket leads by 60 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Panama City and Phuket.

Your match

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

Panama City
50match

Wins on culture and sights and getting around with your weighting.

Phuket
Best match
57match

Wins on wellness and beaches 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

Phuket in July

32 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
287 mmrain in the month
30 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400500JFMAMJJASOND
Panama CityPhuket

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.

Phuket's temperatures are measured 27 km from the centre, at Phuket Airport.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Panama City: 1991-2020 normals, Tocumen (20.4 km from centre). Phuket: 1991-2020 (rainfall 1961-1990) normals, Phuket Airport (26.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePanama CityPhuket
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 m19 m
Main airportTocumen International Airport (PTY)20 km from centre92 non-stop destinationsPhuket International Airport (HKT)27 km from centre85 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days-

By the numbers

MeasurePanama CityPhuket
City population1,540,00077,610
People per km²5,6006,468
Museums within 10 km102
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 Phuket 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.