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
Gastown, Vancouver
VancouverGastown

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

Panama City or Vancouver?

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 Vancouver for

  • getting around
  • wellness
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Vancouver’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, Vancouver 42: Panama City leads by 2 points.
Food & drink. Panama City 57, Vancouver 72: Vancouver leads by 15 points.
Culture & sights. Panama City 62, Vancouver 42: Panama City leads by 20 points.
Nightlife. Panama City 62, Vancouver 42: Panama City leads by 20 points.
Nature & outdoors. Panama City 74, Vancouver 97: Vancouver leads by 23 points.
Day trips. Panama City 50, Vancouver 45: Panama City leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Panama City 45, Vancouver 72: Vancouver leads by 27 points.
Getting around. Panama City 40, Vancouver 73: Vancouver leads by 33 points.
Shopping & style. Panama City 52, Vancouver 55: Vancouver leads by 3 points.
Affordability. Panama City 55, Vancouver 27: Panama City leads by 28 points.
Live music & performing arts. Panama City 34, Vancouver 52: Vancouver leads by 18 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Panama City 22, Vancouver 50: Vancouver leads by 28 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Panama City and Vancouver.

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.

Vancouver
Best match
56match

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

Vancouver in July

23 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
42 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
16 °Csea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400500JFMAMJJASOND
Panama CityVancouver

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). Vancouver: 1991-2020 normals, Vancouver Harbour CS (4.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePanama CityVancouver
Official languageSpanishFrench, English
CurrencyBalboa (PAB)Canadian Dollar (CAD)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation20 m2 m
Main airportTocumen International Airport (PTY)20 km from centre92 non-stop destinationsVancouver International Airport (YVR)9 km from centre109 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasurePanama CityVancouver
City population1,540,000662,248
People per km²5,6005,759
Museums within 10 km1026
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 Vancouver 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.