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
Victoria Falls and its gorge from a helicopter, Victoria Falls
Victoria FallsVictoria Falls and its gorge from a helicopter

Photos: Panama City by Ayaita, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Victoria Falls by Murray Foubister, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Panama City or Victoria Falls?

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
  • culture and sights
  • beaches

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

Choose Victoria Falls for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Victoria Falls’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 Falls 7: Panama City leads by 37 points.
Food & drink. Panama City 57, Victoria Falls 24: Panama City leads by 33 points.
Culture & sights. Panama City 62, Victoria Falls 12: Panama City leads by 50 points.
Nightlife. Panama City 62, Victoria Falls 8: Panama City leads by 54 points.
Nature & outdoors. Panama City 74, Victoria Falls 94: Victoria Falls leads by 20 points.
Day trips. Panama City 50, Victoria Falls 22: Panama City leads by 28 points.
Good for families. Panama City 45, Victoria Falls 38: Panama City leads by 7 points.
Getting around. Panama City 40, Victoria Falls 45: Victoria Falls leads by 5 points.
Shopping & style. Panama City 52, Victoria Falls 18: Panama City leads by 34 points.
Affordability. Panama City 55, Victoria Falls 32: Panama City leads by 23 points.
Live music & performing arts. Panama City 34, Victoria Falls 10: Panama City leads by 24 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Panama City 22, Victoria Falls 34: Victoria Falls leads by 12 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Panama City and Victoria Falls.

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 culture and sights with your weighting.

Victoria Falls
29match

Wins on nature and the outdoors 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
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Victoria Falls in July

26 °Cdaytime high
8 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
No seasea
11 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400500JFMAMJJASOND
Panama CityVictoria Falls

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). Victoria Falls: 1991-2020 normals, Livingstone (13.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePanama CityVictoria Falls
Official languageSpanishEnglish, Xhosa, Ndau, Venda, Chewa, Khoisan, Kalanga, Shona, Tonga, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Northern Ndebele, Nambya, Zimbabwe Sign Language, Barwe
CurrencyBalboa (PAB)Zimbabwe Gold (ZWG)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzG220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+2
Emergency number911999
Elevation20 m961 m
Main airportTocumen International Airport (PTY)20 km from centre92 non-stop destinationsVictoria Falls International Airport (VFA)18 km from centre12 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasurePanama CityVictoria Falls
City population1,540,00033,060
People per km²5,600-
Museums within 10 km102
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months-

Where else could you go?

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