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
Cliff-top hotels above the harbour, Sorrento
SorrentoCliff-top hotels above the harbour

Photos: Panama City by Ayaita, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Sorrento by Berthold Werner, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Panama City or Sorrento?

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
  • culture and sights
  • prices

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

Choose Sorrento for

  • day trips
  • wellness
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Sorrento’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, Sorrento 60: Sorrento leads by 16 points.
Food & drink. Panama City 57, Sorrento 60: Sorrento leads by 3 points.
Culture & sights. Panama City 62, Sorrento 32: Panama City leads by 30 points.
Nightlife. Panama City 62, Sorrento 28: Panama City leads by 34 points.
Nature & outdoors. Panama City 74, Sorrento 80: Sorrento leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Panama City 50, Sorrento 95: Sorrento leads by 45 points.
Good for families. Panama City 45, Sorrento 42: Panama City leads by 3 points.
Getting around. Panama City 40, Sorrento 58: Sorrento leads by 18 points.
Shopping & style. Panama City 52, Sorrento 38: Panama City leads by 14 points.
Affordability. Panama City 55, Sorrento 32: Panama City leads by 23 points.
Live music & performing arts. Panama City 34, Sorrento 20: Panama City leads by 14 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Panama City 22, Sorrento 48: Sorrento leads by 26 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Panama City and Sorrento.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Panama City
50match

Wins on nightlife and culture and sights with your weighting.

Sorrento
49match

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

Sorrento in July

29 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
21 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400500JFMAMJJASOND
Panama CitySorrento

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.

Sorrento 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.

Sorrento's sunshine is measured 54 km from the centre, at Grazzanise.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Panama City: 1991-2020 normals, Tocumen (20.4 km from centre). Sorrento: 2005-2025 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Capri (17 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePanama CitySorrento
Official languageSpanishItalian
CurrencyBalboa (PAB)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation20 m50 m
Main airportTocumen International Airport (PTY)20 km from centre92 non-stop destinationsNaples International Airport (NAP)30 km from centre131 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasurePanama CitySorrento
City population1,540,00015,407
People per km²5,6001,541
Museums within 10 km106
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km25
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months5 months

Where else could you go?

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