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 Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco
San FranciscoThe Golden Gate Bridge

Photos: Panama City by Ayaita, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; San Francisco by Elijah Cobb, Pexels License.

Panama City or San Francisco?

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
  • beaches
  • nightlife

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

Choose San Francisco for

  • live music and the arts
  • getting around
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on San Francisco’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, San Francisco 25: Panama City leads by 19 points.
Food & drink. Panama City 57, San Francisco 82: San Francisco leads by 25 points.
Culture & sights. Panama City 62, San Francisco 68: San Francisco leads by 6 points.
Nightlife. Panama City 62, San Francisco 58: Panama City leads by 4 points.
Nature & outdoors. Panama City 74, San Francisco 80: San Francisco leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Panama City 50, San Francisco 72: San Francisco leads by 22 points.
Good for families. Panama City 45, San Francisco 66: San Francisco leads by 21 points.
Getting around. Panama City 40, San Francisco 70: San Francisco leads by 30 points.
Shopping & style. Panama City 52, San Francisco 58: San Francisco leads by 6 points.
Affordability. Panama City 55, San Francisco 14: Panama City leads by 41 points.
Live music & performing arts. Panama City 34, San Francisco 76: San Francisco leads by 42 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Panama City 22, San Francisco 42: San Francisco leads by 20 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Panama City and San Francisco.

Your match

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

Panama City
50match

Wins on prices and beaches with your weighting.

San Francisco
Best match
59match

Wins on live music and the arts and getting around 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

San Francisco in July

22 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
13 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400500JFMAMJJASOND
Panama CitySan Francisco

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). San Francisco: 1981-2010 normals, Alameda Naval Air Station (9.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePanama CitySan Francisco
Official languageSpanish-
CurrencyBalboa (PAB)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation20 m16 m
Main airportTocumen International Airport (PTY)20 km from centre92 non-stop destinationsSan Francisco International Airport (SFO)18 km from centre142 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasurePanama CitySan Francisco
City population1,540,000873,965
People per km²5,6001,455
Museums within 10 km1051
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 San Francisco 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.