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
Camelback Mountain above the city, Scottsdale
ScottsdaleCamelback Mountain above the city

Photos: Panama City by Ayaita, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Scottsdale by Visitor7, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Panama City or Scottsdale?

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

  • beaches
  • culture and sights
  • prices

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

Choose Scottsdale for

  • wellness
  • families
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Scottsdale’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, Scottsdale 8: Panama City leads by 36 points.
Food & drink. Panama City 57, Scottsdale 46: Panama City leads by 11 points.
Culture & sights. Panama City 62, Scottsdale 38: Panama City leads by 24 points.
Nightlife. Panama City 62, Scottsdale 52: Panama City leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. Panama City 74, Scottsdale 68: Panama City leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Panama City and Scottsdale are level on 50.
Good for families. Panama City 45, Scottsdale 60: Scottsdale leads by 15 points.
Getting around. Panama City 40, Scottsdale 20: Panama City leads by 20 points.
Shopping & style. Panama City 52, Scottsdale 60: Scottsdale leads by 8 points.
Affordability. Panama City 55, Scottsdale 32: Panama City leads by 23 points.
Live music & performing arts. Panama City 34, Scottsdale 40: Scottsdale leads by 6 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Panama City 22, Scottsdale 72: Scottsdale leads by 50 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Panama City and Scottsdale.

Your match

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

Panama City
Best match
50match

Wins on beaches and culture and sights with your weighting.

Scottsdale
46match

Wins on wellness and families 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

Scottsdale in July

41 °Cdaytime high
29 °Cnight-time low
23 mmrain in the month
No seasea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°50°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400500JFMAMJJASOND
Panama CityScottsdale

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). Scottsdale: 1991-2020 normals, Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport (13.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePanama CityScottsdale
Official languageSpanish-
CurrencyBalboa (PAB)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-7
Emergency number911911
Elevation20 m380 m
Main airportTocumen International Airport (PTY)20 km from centre92 non-stop destinationsPhoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX)10 km from centre148 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasurePanama CityScottsdale
City population1,540,000241,361
People per km²5,600-
Museums within 10 km1010
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 Scottsdale 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.