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
Palms at CityPlace on Rosemary Avenue, West Palm Beach
West Palm BeachPalms at CityPlace on Rosemary Avenue

Photos: Panama City by Ayaita, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; West Palm Beach by Michael Rivera, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Panama City or West Palm Beach?

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
  • nightlife
  • culture and sights

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

Choose West Palm Beach for

  • beaches
  • wellness
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on West Palm Beach’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, West Palm Beach 80: West Palm Beach leads by 36 points.
Food & drink. Panama City 57, West Palm Beach 52: Panama City leads by 5 points.
Culture & sights. Panama City 62, West Palm Beach 42: Panama City leads by 20 points.
Nightlife. Panama City 62, West Palm Beach 36: Panama City leads by 26 points.
Nature & outdoors. Panama City 74, West Palm Beach 58: Panama City leads by 16 points.
Day trips. Panama City 50, West Palm Beach 55: West Palm Beach leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Panama City 45, West Palm Beach 66: West Palm Beach leads by 21 points.
Getting around. Panama City 40, West Palm Beach 38: Panama City leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Panama City 52, West Palm Beach 64: West Palm Beach leads by 12 points.
Affordability. Panama City 55, West Palm Beach 23: Panama City leads by 32 points.
Live music & performing arts. Panama City 34, West Palm Beach 47: West Palm Beach leads by 13 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Panama City 22, West Palm Beach 44: West Palm Beach leads by 22 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Panama City and West Palm Beach.

Your match

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

Too close to call, level with your weighting

Panama City
50match

Wins on prices and nightlife with your weighting.

West Palm Beach
50match

Wins on beaches 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

West Palm Beach in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
145 mmrain in the month
29 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400500JFMAMJJASOND
Panama CityWest Palm Beach

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). West Palm Beach: 1991-2020 normals, Palm Beach International (5.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePanama CityWest Palm Beach
Official languageSpanish-
CurrencyBalboa (PAB)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation20 m6 m
Main airportTocumen International Airport (PTY)20 km from centre92 non-stop destinationsPresident Donald J. Trump International Airport (DJT)6 km from centre42 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasurePanama CityWest Palm Beach
City population1,540,000117,415
People per km²5,600786
Museums within 10 km104
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months12 months

Where else could you go?

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