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
Playa de los Muertos below the green hills, Puerto Vallarta
Puerto VallartaPlaya de los Muertos below the green hills

Photos: Panama City by Ayaita, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Puerto Vallarta by RL0919, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Panama City or Puerto Vallarta?

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
  • shopping
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Puerto Vallarta for

  • beaches
  • wellness
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Puerto Vallarta’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, Puerto Vallarta 85: Puerto Vallarta leads by 41 points.
Food & drink. Panama City 57, Puerto Vallarta 62: Puerto Vallarta leads by 5 points.
Culture & sights. Panama City 62, Puerto Vallarta 28: Panama City leads by 34 points.
Nightlife. Panama City 62, Puerto Vallarta 66: Puerto Vallarta leads by 4 points.
Nature & outdoors. Panama City 74, Puerto Vallarta 76: Puerto Vallarta leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Panama City 50, Puerto Vallarta 55: Puerto Vallarta leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Panama City 45, Puerto Vallarta 65: Puerto Vallarta leads by 20 points.
Getting around. Panama City 40, Puerto Vallarta 45: Puerto Vallarta leads by 5 points.
Shopping & style. Panama City 52, Puerto Vallarta 42: Panama City leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Panama City 55, Puerto Vallarta 60: Puerto Vallarta leads by 5 points.
Live music & performing arts. Panama City 34, Puerto Vallarta 32: Panama City leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Panama City 22, Puerto Vallarta 52: Puerto Vallarta leads by 30 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Panama City and Puerto Vallarta.

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 shopping with your weighting.

Puerto Vallarta
Best match
56match

Wins on beaches 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

Puerto Vallarta in July

34 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
209 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 CityPuerto Vallarta

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.

Puerto Vallarta has no weather station within reach, so its figures come from a gridded climate model rather than a measured record, and read a broad area rather than the city itself.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Panama City: 1991-2020 normals, Tocumen (20.4 km from centre). Puerto Vallarta: 1991-2020 normals, TerraClimate 4 km grid at the town, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasurePanama CityPuerto Vallarta
Official languageSpanishSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyBalboa (PAB)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-6
Emergency number911911
Elevation20 m101 m
Main airportTocumen International Airport (PTY)20 km from centre92 non-stop destinationsPuerto Vallarta International Airport (PVR)5 km from centre52 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasurePanama CityPuerto Vallarta
City population1,540,000224,166
People per km²5,6004,311
Museums within 10 km102
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
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 Puerto Vallarta 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. Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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.