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 Christuskirche among palms, Windhoek
WindhoekThe Christuskirche among palms

Photos: Panama City by Ayaita, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Windhoek by Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Panama City or Windhoek?

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

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • day trips

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

Choose Windhoek for

  • wellness
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Windhoek’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, Windhoek 4: Panama City leads by 40 points.
Food & drink. Panama City 57, Windhoek 36: Panama City leads by 21 points.
Culture & sights. Panama City 62, Windhoek 30: Panama City leads by 32 points.
Nightlife. Panama City 62, Windhoek 25: Panama City leads by 37 points.
Nature & outdoors. Panama City 74, Windhoek 52: Panama City leads by 22 points.
Day trips. Panama City 50, Windhoek 14: Panama City leads by 36 points.
Good for families. Panama City 45, Windhoek 30: Panama City leads by 15 points.
Getting around. Panama City 40, Windhoek 22: Panama City leads by 18 points.
Shopping & style. Panama City 52, Windhoek 30: Panama City leads by 22 points.
Affordability. Panama City 55, Windhoek 62: Windhoek leads by 7 points.
Live music & performing arts. Panama City 34, Windhoek 18: Panama City leads by 16 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Panama City 22, Windhoek 30: Windhoek leads by 8 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Panama City
Best match
50match

Wins on beaches and nightlife with your weighting.

Windhoek
29match

Wins on wellness 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

Windhoek in July

22 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
1 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 CityWindhoek

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). Windhoek: 1991-2020 normals, Windhoek (1.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePanama CityWindhoek
Official languageSpanishEnglish
CurrencyBalboa (PAB)Namibia Dollar (NAD)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzM220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+2
Emergency number911112
Elevation20 m1,650 m
Main airportTocumen International Airport (PTY)20 km from centre92 non-stop destinationsHosea Kutako International Airport (WDH)41 km from centre16 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasurePanama CityWindhoek
City population1,540,000486,169
People per km²5,60095
Museums within 10 km105
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 Windhoek 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.