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 cathedral above the old town, Santiago de Compostela
Santiago de CompostelaThe cathedral above the old town

Photos: Panama City by Ayaita, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Santiago de Compostela by Luis Miguel Bugallo Sánchez (Lmbuga), CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Panama City or Santiago de Compostela?

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
  • beaches

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

Choose Santiago de Compostela for

  • getting around
  • day trips
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Santiago de Compostela’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, Santiago de Compostela 32: Panama City leads by 12 points.
Food & drink. Panama City 57, Santiago de Compostela 68: Santiago de Compostela leads by 11 points.
Culture & sights. Panama City 62, Santiago de Compostela 70: Santiago de Compostela leads by 8 points.
Nightlife. Panama City 62, Santiago de Compostela 45: Panama City leads by 17 points.
Nature & outdoors. Panama City 74, Santiago de Compostela 62: Panama City leads by 12 points.
Day trips. Panama City 50, Santiago de Compostela 72: Santiago de Compostela leads by 22 points.
Good for families. Panama City 45, Santiago de Compostela 42: Panama City leads by 3 points.
Getting around. Panama City 40, Santiago de Compostela 70: Santiago de Compostela leads by 30 points.
Shopping & style. Panama City 52, Santiago de Compostela 35: Panama City leads by 17 points.
Affordability. Panama City 55, Santiago de Compostela 64: Santiago de Compostela leads by 9 points.
Live music & performing arts. Panama City 34, Santiago de Compostela 40: Santiago de Compostela leads by 6 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Panama City 22, Santiago de Compostela 42: Santiago de Compostela leads by 20 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Panama City and Santiago de Compostela.

Your match

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

Panama City
50match

Wins on nightlife and shopping with your weighting.

Santiago de Compostela
Best match
54match

Wins on getting around and day trips 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

Santiago de Compostela in July

25 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
41 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
17 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400500JFMAMJJASOND
Panama CitySantiago de Compostela

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). Santiago de Compostela: 1991-2020 normals, Santiago / Labacolla (8.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePanama CitySantiago de Compostela
Official languageSpanishSpanish
CurrencyBalboa (PAB)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation20 m260 m
Main airportTocumen International Airport (PTY)20 km from centre92 non-stop destinationsSantiago-Rosalía de Castro Airport (SCQ)10 km from centre29 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasurePanama CitySantiago de Compostela
City population1,540,000100,965
People per km²5,600459
Museums within 10 km106
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km22
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 Santiago de Compostela 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. 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.