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 main beach with the green hills behind, Sayulita
SayulitaThe main beach with the green hills behind

Photos: Panama City by Ayaita, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Sayulita by Luisalvaz, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Panama City or Sayulita?

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

  • culture and sights
  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Sayulita for

  • beaches
  • wellness
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Sayulita’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, Sayulita 80: Sayulita leads by 36 points.
Food & drink. Panama City 57, Sayulita 42: Panama City leads by 15 points.
Culture & sights. Panama City 62, Sayulita 7: Panama City leads by 55 points.
Nightlife. Panama City 62, Sayulita 33: Panama City leads by 29 points.
Nature & outdoors. Panama City 74, Sayulita 72: Panama City leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Panama City 50, Sayulita 42: Panama City leads by 8 points.
Good for families. Panama City 45, Sayulita 42: Panama City leads by 3 points.
Getting around. Panama City 40, Sayulita 48: Sayulita leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. Panama City 52, Sayulita 33: Panama City leads by 19 points.
Affordability. Panama City 55, Sayulita 45: Panama City leads by 10 points.
Live music & performing arts. Panama City 34, Sayulita 12: Panama City leads by 22 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Panama City 22, Sayulita 58: Sayulita leads by 36 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Panama City and Sayulita.

Your match

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

Panama City
Best match
50match

Wins on culture and sights and nightlife with your weighting.

Sayulita
43match

Wins on beaches and wellness 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

Sayulita in July

29 °Cdaytime high
27 °Cnight-time low
342 mmrain in the month
30 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400500JFMAMJJASOND
Panama CitySayulita

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.

Sayulita has no weather station within reach, so its figures come from a gridded climate model rather than a measured record, and read a broad area rather than the city itself.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Panama City: 1991-2020 normals, Tocumen (20.4 km from centre). Sayulita: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasurePanama CitySayulita
Official languageSpanishSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyBalboa (PAB)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-6
Emergency number911911
Elevation20 m2 m
Main airportTocumen International Airport (PTY)20 km from centre92 non-stop destinationsPuerto Vallarta International Airport (PVR)29 km from centre52 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasurePanama CitySayulita
City population1,540,0003,390
People per km²5,600-
Museums within 10 km100
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Panama City or Sayulita 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. Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.