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 Opera House from the water, Sydney
SydneyThe Opera House from the water

Photos: Panama City by Ayaita, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Sydney by Bernard Spragg, CC0.

Panama City or Sydney?

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

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • nightlife

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

Choose Sydney for

  • beaches
  • live music and the arts
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Sydney’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, Sydney 95: Sydney leads by 51 points.
Food & drink. Panama City 57, Sydney 77: Sydney leads by 20 points.
Culture & sights. Panama City 62, Sydney 60: Panama City leads by 2 points.
Nightlife. Panama City 62, Sydney 60: Panama City leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Panama City 74, Sydney 85: Sydney leads by 11 points.
Day trips. Panama City and Sydney are level on 50.
Good for families. Panama City 45, Sydney 75: Sydney leads by 30 points.
Getting around. Panama City 40, Sydney 75: Sydney leads by 35 points.
Shopping & style. Panama City 52, Sydney 68: Sydney leads by 16 points.
Affordability. Panama City 55, Sydney 22: Panama City leads by 33 points.
Live music & performing arts. Panama City 34, Sydney 73: Sydney leads by 39 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Panama City 22, Sydney 55: Sydney leads by 33 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Panama City and Sydney.

Your match

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

Panama City
50match

Wins on prices and culture and sights with your weighting.

Sydney
Best match
66match

Wins on beaches and live music and the arts 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

Sydney in July

18 °Cdaytime high
9 °Cnight-time low
70 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
19 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400500JFMAMJJASOND
Panama CitySydney

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). Sydney: 1991-2020 normals, Sydney Airport (3.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePanama CitySydney
Official languageSpanishEnglish
CurrencyBalboa (PAB)Australian Dollar (AUD)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+10, UTC+11 in summer
Emergency number911000
Elevation20 m6 m
Main airportTocumen International Airport (PTY)20 km from centre92 non-stop destinationsSydney Kingsford Smith International Airport (SYD)9 km from centre99 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasurePanama CitySydney
City population1,540,0005,450,496
People per km²5,600449
Museums within 10 km1038
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km22
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months6 months

Where else could you go?

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