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 old Bath House in the Government Gardens, Rotorua
RotoruaThe old Bath House in the Government Gardens

Photos: Panama City by Ayaita, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Rotorua by W. Bulach, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Panama City or Rotorua?

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
  • shopping
  • food and drink

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

Choose Rotorua for

  • wellness
  • families
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Rotorua’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, Rotorua 33: Panama City leads by 11 points.
Food & drink. Panama City 57, Rotorua 33: Panama City leads by 24 points.
Culture & sights. Panama City 62, Rotorua 38: Panama City leads by 24 points.
Nightlife. Panama City 62, Rotorua 14: Panama City leads by 48 points.
Nature & outdoors. Panama City 74, Rotorua 86: Rotorua leads by 12 points.
Day trips. Panama City 50, Rotorua 45: Panama City leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Panama City 45, Rotorua 68: Rotorua leads by 23 points.
Getting around. Panama City 40, Rotorua 30: Panama City leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Panama City 52, Rotorua 22: Panama City leads by 30 points.
Affordability. Panama City 55, Rotorua 36: Panama City leads by 19 points.
Live music & performing arts. Panama City 34, Rotorua 30: Panama City leads by 4 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Panama City 22, Rotorua 86: Rotorua leads by 64 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Panama City and Rotorua.

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 shopping with your weighting.

Rotorua
43match

Wins on wellness and families 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

Rotorua in July

11 °Cdaytime high
6 °Cnight-time low
113 mmrain in the month
15 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400500JFMAMJJASOND
Panama CityRotorua

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.

Rotorua 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). Rotorua: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasurePanama CityRotorua
Official languageSpanishEnglish, New Zealand Sign Language, Māori
CurrencyBalboa (PAB)New Zealand Dollar (NZD)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+12, UTC+13 in summer
Emergency number911111
Elevation20 m280 m
Main airportTocumen International Airport (PTY)20 km from centre92 non-stop destinationsRotorua Regional Airport (ROT)7 km from centre3 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasurePanama CityRotorua
City population1,540,00058,500
People per km²5,60022
Museums within 10 km101
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
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 Rotorua 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.