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
A painted funicular on the hillside, Valparaiso
ValparaisoA painted funicular on the hillside

Photos: Panama City by Ayaita, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Valparaiso by Maclemo, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Panama City or Valparaiso?

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

  • shopping
  • nature and the outdoors
  • families

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

Choose Valparaiso for

  • day trips
  • prices
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Valparaiso’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, Valparaiso 36: Panama City leads by 8 points.
Food & drink. Panama City 57, Valparaiso 50: Panama City leads by 7 points.
Culture & sights. Panama City and Valparaiso are level on 62.
Nightlife. Panama City 62, Valparaiso 56: Panama City leads by 6 points.
Nature & outdoors. Panama City 74, Valparaiso 60: Panama City leads by 14 points.
Day trips. Panama City 50, Valparaiso 63: Valparaiso leads by 13 points.
Good for families. Panama City 45, Valparaiso 33: Panama City leads by 12 points.
Getting around. Panama City 40, Valparaiso 44: Valparaiso leads by 4 points.
Shopping & style. Panama City 52, Valparaiso 30: Panama City leads by 22 points.
Affordability. Panama City 55, Valparaiso 60: Valparaiso leads by 5 points.
Live music & performing arts. Panama City 34, Valparaiso 38: Valparaiso leads by 4 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Panama City 22, Valparaiso 18: Panama City leads by 4 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Panama City and Valparaiso.

Your match

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

Panama City
Best match
50match

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

Valparaiso
46match

Wins on day trips and prices 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
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Valparaiso in July

15 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
71 mmrain in the month
13 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400500JFMAMJJASOND
Panama CityValparaiso

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.

Valparaiso 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). Valparaiso: 2010-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Viña Del Mar / Montemar (17 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePanama CityValparaiso
Official languageSpanishSpanish
CurrencyBalboa (PAB)Chilean Peso (CLP)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzCL220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-4, UTC-3 in summer
Emergency number911Police 133/134, ambulance 131, fire 132
Elevation20 m21 m
Main airportTocumen International Airport (PTY)20 km from centre92 non-stop destinationsComodoro Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport (SCL)87 km from centre67 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasurePanama CityValparaiso
City population1,540,000296,655
People per km²5,6006,180
Museums within 10 km1017
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
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 Valparaiso 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. 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.