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 Limmat from Quaibrücke, Zurich
ZurichThe Limmat from Quaibrücke

Photos: Panama City by Ayaita, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Zurich by Daniel Kraft, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Panama City or Zurich?

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
  • food and drink
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Zurich for

  • getting around
  • live music and the arts
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Zurich’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, Zurich 45: Zurich leads by 1 points.
Food & drink. Panama City 57, Zurich 53: Panama City leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. Panama City 62, Zurich 58: Panama City leads by 4 points.
Nightlife. Panama City and Zurich are level on 62.
Nature & outdoors. Panama City 74, Zurich 80: Zurich leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Panama City 50, Zurich 84: Zurich leads by 34 points.
Good for families. Panama City 45, Zurich 76: Zurich leads by 31 points.
Getting around. Panama City 40, Zurich 95: Zurich leads by 55 points.
Shopping & style. Panama City 52, Zurich 66: Zurich leads by 14 points.
Affordability. Panama City 55, Zurich 3: Panama City leads by 52 points.
Live music & performing arts. Panama City 34, Zurich 70: Zurich leads by 36 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Panama City 22, Zurich 58: Zurich leads by 36 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Panama City and Zurich.

Your match

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

Panama City
50match

Wins on prices and food and drink with your weighting.

Zurich
Best match
63match

Wins on getting around and live music and the arts 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

Zurich in July

24 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
126 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
No seasea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400500JFMAMJJASOND
Panama CityZurich

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). Zurich: 1991-2020 normals, Zurich Town / Ville. (2.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePanama CityZurich
Official languageSpanishFrench, German, Italian, Romansh
CurrencyBalboa (PAB)Swiss Franc (CHF)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzCJ230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation20 m408 m
Main airportTocumen International Airport (PTY)20 km from centre92 non-stop destinationsZürich Airport (ZRH)9 km from centre226 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days10 days

By the numbers

MeasurePanama CityZurich
City population1,540,000440,935
People per km²5,6005,016
Museums within 10 km1063
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
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 Zurich 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. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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.