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
Hanok houses in Bukchon, Seoul
SeoulHanok houses in Bukchon

Photos: Panama City by Ayaita, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Seoul by 거열 박, Pexels License.

Panama City or Seoul?

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
  • prices

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

Choose Seoul for

  • wellness
  • getting around
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Seoul’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, Seoul 18: Panama City leads by 26 points.
Food & drink. Panama City 57, Seoul 84: Seoul leads by 27 points.
Culture & sights. Panama City 62, Seoul 75: Seoul leads by 13 points.
Nightlife. Panama City 62, Seoul 84: Seoul leads by 22 points.
Nature & outdoors. Panama City 74, Seoul 75: Seoul leads by 1 points.
Day trips. Panama City 50, Seoul 77: Seoul leads by 27 points.
Good for families. Panama City 45, Seoul 80: Seoul leads by 35 points.
Getting around. Panama City 40, Seoul 87: Seoul leads by 47 points.
Shopping & style. Panama City 52, Seoul 85: Seoul leads by 33 points.
Affordability. Panama City 55, Seoul 50: Panama City leads by 5 points.
Live music & performing arts. Panama City 34, Seoul 63: Seoul leads by 29 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Panama City 22, Seoul 75: Seoul leads by 53 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Panama City
50match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

Seoul
Best match
71match

Wins on wellness 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
No recordsunshine a day
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Seoul in July

29 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
422 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
21 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400500JFMAMJJASOND
Panama CitySeoul

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). Seoul: 1991-2020 normals, Seoul (2.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePanama CitySeoul
Official languageSpanishKorean, Korean Sign Language
CurrencyBalboa (PAB)Won (KRW)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzCF220 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+9
Emergency number911Police 112, ambulance 119, fire 119
Elevation20 m38 m
Main airportTocumen International Airport (PTY)20 km from centre92 non-stop destinationsIncheon International Airport (ICN)49 km from centre162 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days18 days

By the numbers

MeasurePanama CitySeoul
City population1,540,0009,668,465
People per km²5,60015,973
Museums within 10 km1081
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km25
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months2 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Panama City or Seoul 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.