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
São Paulo Cathedral, Sao Paulo
Sao PauloSão Paulo Cathedral

Photos: Panama City by Ayaita, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Sao Paulo by Webysther Nunes, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Panama City or Sao Paulo?

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

  • nature and the outdoors
  • day trips
  • beaches

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

Choose Sao Paulo for

  • live music and the arts
  • food and drink
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Sao Paulo’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, Sao Paulo 42: Panama City leads by 2 points.
Food & drink. Panama City 57, Sao Paulo 84: Sao Paulo leads by 27 points.
Culture & sights. Panama City 62, Sao Paulo 60: Panama City leads by 2 points.
Nightlife. Panama City 62, Sao Paulo 86: Sao Paulo leads by 24 points.
Nature & outdoors. Panama City 74, Sao Paulo 48: Panama City leads by 26 points.
Day trips. Panama City 50, Sao Paulo 47: Panama City leads by 3 points.
Good for families. Panama City 45, Sao Paulo 52: Sao Paulo leads by 7 points.
Getting around. Panama City 40, Sao Paulo 44: Sao Paulo leads by 4 points.
Shopping & style. Panama City 52, Sao Paulo 70: Sao Paulo leads by 18 points.
Affordability. Panama City 55, Sao Paulo 62: Sao Paulo leads by 7 points.
Live music & performing arts. Panama City 34, Sao Paulo 76: Sao Paulo leads by 42 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Panama City 22, Sao Paulo 25: Sao Paulo leads by 3 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Panama City and Sao Paulo.

Your match

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

Panama City
50match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and day trips with your weighting.

Sao Paulo
Best match
58match

Wins on live music and the arts and food and drink 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

Sao Paulo in July

23 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
53 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
No seasea
11 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400500JFMAMJJASOND
Panama CitySao Paulo

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). Sao Paulo: 1991-2020 normals, Sao Paulo (5.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePanama CitySao Paulo
Official languageSpanishPortuguese
CurrencyBalboa (PAB)Brazilian Real (BRL)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzCN60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-3
Emergency number911Police 190, ambulance 192, fire 193
Elevation20 m760 m
Main airportTocumen International Airport (PTY)20 km from centre92 non-stop destinationsSão Paulo/Guarulhos–Governor André Franco Montoro International Airport (GRU)21 km from centre104 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days15 days

By the numbers

MeasurePanama CitySao Paulo
City population1,540,00011,451,999
People per km²5,6007,519
Museums within 10 km1090
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 Sao Paulo 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.