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
Shibuya Crossing, Tokyo
TokyoShibuya Crossing

Photos: Panama City by Ayaita, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Tokyo by Benh LIEU SONG, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Panama City or Tokyo?

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
  • nature and the outdoors
  • beaches

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

Choose Tokyo for

  • getting around
  • wellness
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Tokyo’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, Tokyo 40: Panama City leads by 4 points.
Food & drink. Panama City 57, Tokyo 98: Tokyo leads by 41 points.
Culture & sights. Panama City 62, Tokyo 84: Tokyo leads by 22 points.
Nightlife. Panama City 62, Tokyo 86: Tokyo leads by 24 points.
Nature & outdoors. Panama City 74, Tokyo 68: Panama City leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Panama City 50, Tokyo 85: Tokyo leads by 35 points.
Good for families. Panama City 45, Tokyo 95: Tokyo leads by 50 points.
Getting around. Panama City 40, Tokyo 98: Tokyo leads by 58 points.
Shopping & style. Panama City 52, Tokyo 99: Tokyo leads by 47 points.
Affordability. Panama City 55, Tokyo 48: Panama City leads by 7 points.
Live music & performing arts. Panama City 34, Tokyo 86: Tokyo leads by 52 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Panama City 22, Tokyo 78: Tokyo leads by 56 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Panama City and Tokyo.

Your match

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

Panama City
50match

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

Tokyo
Best match
80match

Wins on getting around 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

Tokyo in July

30 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
157 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
23 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400500JFMAMJJASOND
Panama CityTokyo

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). Tokyo: 1991-2020 normals, Tokyo (3.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePanama CityTokyo
Official languageSpanishJapanese
CurrencyBalboa (PAB)Yen (JPY)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the region
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+9
Emergency number911Police 110, fire 119
Elevation20 m6 m
Main airportTocumen International Airport (PTY)20 km from centre92 non-stop destinationsTokyo Haneda International Airport (HND)18 km from centre98 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasurePanama CityTokyo
City population1,540,00014,264,798
People per km²5,6006,501
Museums within 10 km10192
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months4 months

Where else could you go?

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