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
Portofino and its bay from the hillside, Portofino
PortofinoPortofino and its bay from the hillside

Photos: Panama City by Ayaita, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Portofino by Michal Osmenda, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Panama City or Portofino?

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
  • prices
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Portofino for

  • day trips
  • wellness
  • beaches

What lies behind each score is written up on Portofino’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, Portofino 60: Portofino leads by 16 points.
Food & drink. Panama City 57, Portofino 36: Panama City leads by 21 points.
Culture & sights. Panama City 62, Portofino 22: Panama City leads by 40 points.
Nightlife. Panama City 62, Portofino 14: Panama City leads by 48 points.
Nature & outdoors. Panama City 74, Portofino 77: Portofino leads by 3 points.
Day trips. Panama City 50, Portofino 76: Portofino leads by 26 points.
Good for families. Panama City 45, Portofino 33: Panama City leads by 12 points.
Getting around. Panama City 40, Portofino 50: Portofino leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Panama City 52, Portofino 29: Panama City leads by 23 points.
Affordability. Panama City 55, Portofino 9: Panama City leads by 46 points.
Live music & performing arts. Panama City 34, Portofino 7: Panama City leads by 27 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Panama City 22, Portofino 42: Portofino leads by 20 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Panama City and Portofino.

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 prices with your weighting.

Portofino
38match

Wins on day trips 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
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Portofino in July

27 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
32 mmrain in the month
24 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400500JFMAMJJASOND
Panama CityPortofino

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.

Portofino's temperatures are measured 31 km from the centre, at Genova / Sestri.

Portofino 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). Portofino: 1991-2020 normals, Genova / Sestri (31 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePanama CityPortofino
Official languageSpanishItalian
CurrencyBalboa (PAB)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation20 m20 m
Main airportTocumen International Airport (PTY)20 km from centre92 non-stop destinationsGenoa Cristoforo Colombo Airport (GOA)32 km from centre25 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasurePanama CityPortofino
City population1,540,000355
People per km²5,600142
Museums within 10 km1014
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km22
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months4 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Panama City or Portofino 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. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.