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
A madrasa and its minarets on the Registan, Samarkand
SamarkandA madrasa and its minarets on the Registan

Photos: Panama City by Ayaita, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Samarkand by Yaşar Başkurt, Pexels License.

Panama City or Samarkand?

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
  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Samarkand for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Samarkand’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, Samarkand 4: Panama City leads by 40 points.
Food & drink. Panama City 57, Samarkand 54: Panama City leads by 3 points.
Culture & sights. Panama City 62, Samarkand 84: Samarkand leads by 22 points.
Nightlife. Panama City 62, Samarkand 14: Panama City leads by 48 points.
Nature & outdoors. Panama City 74, Samarkand 40: Panama City leads by 34 points.
Day trips. Panama City 50, Samarkand 72: Samarkand leads by 22 points.
Good for families. Panama City 45, Samarkand 30: Panama City leads by 15 points.
Getting around. Panama City 40, Samarkand 58: Samarkand leads by 18 points.
Shopping & style. Panama City 52, Samarkand 42: Panama City leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Panama City 55, Samarkand 80: Samarkand leads by 25 points.
Live music & performing arts. Panama City 34, Samarkand 24: Panama City leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Panama City 22, Samarkand 32: Samarkand leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Panama City and Samarkand.

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 beaches with your weighting.

Samarkand
45match

Wins on prices and culture and sights 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

Samarkand in July

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

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400500JFMAMJJASOND
Panama CitySamarkand

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). Samarkand: 1991-2020 normals, Samarkand (10 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePanama CitySamarkand
Official languageSpanishUzbek
CurrencyBalboa (PAB)Uzbekistan Sum (UZS)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzCFI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+5
Emergency number911112
Elevation20 m702 m
Main airportTocumen International Airport (PTY)20 km from centre92 non-stop destinationsSamarkand International Airport (SKD)5 km from centre29 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days-

By the numbers

MeasurePanama CitySamarkand
City population1,540,000546,303
People per km²5,6005,058
Museums within 10 km1011
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
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 Samarkand 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. 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.