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 White Tower from the promenade, Thessaloniki
ThessalonikiThe White Tower from the promenade

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

Panama City or Thessaloniki?

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

  • nature and the outdoors
  • shopping

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

Choose Thessaloniki for

  • day trips
  • food and drink
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Thessaloniki’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, Thessaloniki 55: Thessaloniki leads by 11 points.
Food & drink. Panama City 57, Thessaloniki 77: Thessaloniki leads by 20 points.
Culture & sights. Panama City 62, Thessaloniki 73: Thessaloniki leads by 11 points.
Nightlife. Panama City 62, Thessaloniki 76: Thessaloniki leads by 14 points.
Nature & outdoors. Panama City 74, Thessaloniki 66: Panama City leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Panama City 50, Thessaloniki 74: Thessaloniki leads by 24 points.
Good for families. Panama City 45, Thessaloniki 50: Thessaloniki leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Panama City 40, Thessaloniki 60: Thessaloniki leads by 20 points.
Shopping & style. Panama City 52, Thessaloniki 50: Panama City leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Panama City 55, Thessaloniki 66: Thessaloniki leads by 11 points.
Live music & performing arts. Panama City 34, Thessaloniki 52: Thessaloniki leads by 18 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Panama City 22, Thessaloniki 33: Thessaloniki leads by 11 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Panama City and Thessaloniki.

Your match

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

Panama City
50match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and shopping with your weighting.

Thessaloniki
Best match
61match

Wins on day trips and food and drink 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

Thessaloniki in July

32 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
23 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
26 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400500JFMAMJJASOND
Panama CityThessaloniki

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). Thessaloniki: 1991-2020 normals, Thessaloniki Airport (14 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePanama CityThessaloniki
Official languageSpanishGreek
CurrencyBalboa (PAB)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+2, UTC+3 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation20 m6 m
Main airportTocumen International Airport (PTY)20 km from centre92 non-stop destinationsThessaloniki Macedonia International Airport (SKG)14 km from centre90 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days15 days

By the numbers

MeasurePanama CityThessaloniki
City population1,540,000309,617
People per km²5,60016,042
Museums within 10 km1032
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
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 Thessaloniki 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.