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 Assembly Hall on Temple Square, Salt Lake City
Salt Lake CityThe Assembly Hall on Temple Square

Photos: Panama City by Ayaita, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Salt Lake City by hakkun, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Panama City or Salt Lake City?

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

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Salt Lake City for

  • families
  • live music and the arts
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Salt Lake City’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, Salt Lake City 12: Panama City leads by 32 points.
Food & drink. Panama City 57, Salt Lake City 40: Panama City leads by 17 points.
Culture & sights. Panama City 62, Salt Lake City 42: Panama City leads by 20 points.
Nightlife. Panama City 62, Salt Lake City 30: Panama City leads by 32 points.
Nature & outdoors. Panama City 74, Salt Lake City 90: Salt Lake City leads by 16 points.
Day trips. Panama City 50, Salt Lake City 34: Panama City leads by 16 points.
Good for families. Panama City 45, Salt Lake City 72: Salt Lake City leads by 27 points.
Getting around. Panama City 40, Salt Lake City 42: Salt Lake City leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Panama City 52, Salt Lake City 36: Panama City leads by 16 points.
Affordability. Panama City 55, Salt Lake City 40: Panama City leads by 15 points.
Live music & performing arts. Panama City 34, Salt Lake City 55: Salt Lake City leads by 21 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Panama City 22, Salt Lake City 38: Salt Lake City leads by 16 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Panama City and Salt Lake City.

Your match

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

Panama City
Best match
50match

Wins on beaches and nightlife with your weighting.

Salt Lake City
44match

Wins on families and live music and the arts 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

Salt Lake City in July

34 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
13 mmrain in the month
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400500JFMAMJJASOND
Panama CitySalt Lake City

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). Salt Lake City: 1991-2020 normals, Salt Lake City International Airport (7.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePanama CitySalt Lake City
Official languageSpanish-
CurrencyBalboa (PAB)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-7, UTC-6 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation20 m1,288 m
Main airportTocumen International Airport (PTY)20 km from centre92 non-stop destinationsSalt Lake City International Airport (SLC)9 km from centre108 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasurePanama CitySalt Lake City
City population1,540,000199,723
People per km²5,600690
Museums within 10 km1012
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Panama City or Salt Lake City 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. 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.