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 British Columbia Parliament Buildings, Victoria
VictoriaThe British Columbia Parliament Buildings

Photos: Panama City by Ayaita, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Victoria by Guilice, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Panama City or Victoria?

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

  • nightlife
  • prices
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Victoria for

  • wellness
  • getting around
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Victoria’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, Victoria 28: Panama City leads by 16 points.
Food & drink. Panama City 57, Victoria 50: Panama City leads by 7 points.
Culture & sights. Panama City 62, Victoria 42: Panama City leads by 20 points.
Nightlife. Panama City 62, Victoria 30: Panama City leads by 32 points.
Nature & outdoors. Panama City 74, Victoria 77: Victoria leads by 3 points.
Day trips. Panama City 50, Victoria 54: Victoria leads by 4 points.
Good for families. Panama City 45, Victoria 62: Victoria leads by 17 points.
Getting around. Panama City 40, Victoria 60: Victoria leads by 20 points.
Shopping & style. Panama City 52, Victoria 40: Panama City leads by 12 points.
Affordability. Panama City 55, Victoria 34: Panama City leads by 21 points.
Live music & performing arts. Panama City 34, Victoria 40: Victoria leads by 6 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Panama City 22, Victoria 48: Victoria leads by 26 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Panama City and Victoria.

Your match

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

Panama City
Best match
50match

Wins on nightlife and prices with your weighting.

Victoria
47match

Wins on wellness and getting around 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

Victoria in July

21 °Cdaytime high
12 °Cnight-time low
11 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
12 °Csea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400500JFMAMJJASOND
Panama CityVictoria

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.

Victoria's sunshine is measured 87 km from the centre, at Vancouver International Airport.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Panama City: 1991-2020 normals, Tocumen (20.4 km from centre). Victoria: 1991-2020 normals, Victoria Gonzales CS (3.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePanama CityVictoria
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 m23 m
Main airportTocumen International Airport (PTY)20 km from centre92 non-stop destinationsVictoria International Airport (YYJ)25 km from centre16 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasurePanama CityVictoria
City population1,540,00091,867
People per km²5,6004,711
Museums within 10 km106
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 Victoria 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.