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 Arctic Cathedral, Tromso
TromsoThe Arctic Cathedral

Photos: Panama City by Ayaita, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Tromso by Moyan Brenn, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Panama City or Tromso?

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
  • shopping
  • beaches

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

Choose Tromso for

  • getting around
  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Tromso’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, Tromso 8: Panama City leads by 36 points.
Food & drink. Panama City 57, Tromso 36: Panama City leads by 21 points.
Culture & sights. Panama City 62, Tromso 27: Panama City leads by 35 points.
Nightlife. Panama City 62, Tromso 38: Panama City leads by 24 points.
Nature & outdoors. Panama City 74, Tromso 92: Tromso leads by 18 points.
Day trips. Panama City 50, Tromso 14: Panama City leads by 36 points.
Good for families. Panama City and Tromso are level on 45.
Getting around. Panama City 40, Tromso 60: Tromso leads by 20 points.
Shopping & style. Panama City 52, Tromso 15: Panama City leads by 37 points.
Affordability. Panama City 55, Tromso 11: Panama City leads by 44 points.
Live music & performing arts. Panama City 34, Tromso 32: Panama City leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Panama City 22, Tromso 38: Tromso leads by 16 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Panama City and Tromso.

Your match

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

Panama City
Best match
50match

Wins on prices and shopping with your weighting.

Tromso
35match

Wins on getting around and nature and the outdoors 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

Tromso in July

16 °Cdaytime high
9 °Cnight-time low
73 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
10 °Csea
24 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400500JFMAMJJASOND
Panama CityTromso

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). Tromso: 1991-2020 normals, Tromso (0.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePanama CityTromso
Official languageSpanishNorwegian, Nynorsk, Bokmål, Sámi
CurrencyBalboa (PAB)Norwegian Krone (NOK)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911Police 112, ambulance 113, fire 110
Elevation20 m20 m
Main airportTocumen International Airport (PTY)20 km from centre92 non-stop destinationsTromsø Airport (TOS)4 km from centre49 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasurePanama CityTromso
City population1,540,00079,943
People per km²5,60032
Museums within 10 km108
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

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