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 city from Hallgrímskirkja, Reykjavik
ReykjavikThe city from Hallgrímskirkja

Photos: Panama City by Ayaita, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Reykjavik by Atlantic Ambience, Pexels License.

Panama City or Reykjavik?

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

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • beaches

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

Choose Reykjavik for

  • wellness
  • nature and the outdoors
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Reykjavik’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, Reykjavik 12: Panama City leads by 32 points.
Food & drink. Panama City 57, Reykjavik 42: Panama City leads by 15 points.
Culture & sights. Panama City 62, Reykjavik 25: Panama City leads by 37 points.
Nightlife. Panama City 62, Reykjavik 45: Panama City leads by 17 points.
Nature & outdoors. Panama City 74, Reykjavik 92: Reykjavik leads by 18 points.
Day trips. Panama City 50, Reykjavik 35: Panama City leads by 15 points.
Good for families. Panama City 45, Reykjavik 55: Reykjavik leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Panama City 40, Reykjavik 55: Reykjavik leads by 15 points.
Shopping & style. Panama City 52, Reykjavik 25: Panama City leads by 27 points.
Affordability. Panama City 55, Reykjavik 6: Panama City leads by 49 points.
Live music & performing arts. Panama City 34, Reykjavik 45: Reykjavik leads by 11 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Panama City 22, Reykjavik 88: Reykjavik leads by 66 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Panama City and Reykjavik.

Your match

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

Panama City
Best match
50match

Wins on prices and culture and sights with your weighting.

Reykjavik
44match

Wins on wellness and nature and the outdoors 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

Reykjavik in July

15 °Cdaytime high
9 °Cnight-time low
50 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
11 °Csea
20 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400500JFMAMJJASOND
Panama CityReykjavik

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). Reykjavik: 1991-2020 normals, Reykjavik (2.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePanama CityReykjavik
Official languageSpanishIcelandic
CurrencyBalboa (PAB)Iceland Krona (ISK)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC
Emergency number911112
Elevation20 m8 m
Main airportTocumen International Airport (PTY)20 km from centre92 non-stop destinationsKeflavik International Airport (KEF)37 km from centre88 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasurePanama CityReykjavik
City population1,540,000138,772
People per km²5,600569
Museums within 10 km1023
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Panama City or Reykjavik 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. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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.