TOP PLACES TO VISIT

Casco Viejo

Panama City's restored colonial heart, founded in 1673 and inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Cobblestone streets wind past colonial and neoclassical façades, hidden plazas and rooftop terraces that frame the skyline of the modern city across the bay.

Islas Secas

A private archipelago in the Gulf of Chiriquí, where a handful of barefoot-luxury casitas are scattered across protected islands fringed by empty beaches. Days unfold between the reef, the rainforest and the open Pacific, with nothing on the horizon but water.

Bocas del Toro 

An archipelago of nine islands and countless islets off Panama's Caribbean coast, just a 45-minute flight from Panama City. Crystal-clear reefs, rainforest-covered mountains and a vibrant Afro-Caribbean culture — heard in its calypso rhythms and guari-guari dialect — give the destination a depth few Caribbean archipelagos can match, along with an established range of luxury lodging. 

TOP ACTIVITIES

Gatún Lake Rainforest Safari

A private boat safari across the vast lake at the heart of the Panama Canal, gliding past untouched rainforest alive with howler monkeys, sloths, toucans and iguanas — then drawing close to the great ships waiting to transit the isthmus.

Ocean to Ocean Heli Adventure 

A private hour-long helicopter crossing from the Pacific to the Caribbean, tracing the full length of the Panama Canal over the Miraflores and Agua Clara locks, Gatún Lake and the rainforest between. Landing back in Panama City, the flight pairs naturally with an afternoon city tour through the markets and colonial streets of Casco Viejo. 

Snorkeling in Coiba National Park

A UNESCO World Heritage marine park off the Pacific coast, home to the largest coral reef in the Eastern Pacific and waters teeming with turtles, rays and reef sharks. Between July and October, humpback whales pass through to calve, their songs carrying beneath the surface.

RECOMMENDED RESTAURANTS

Maito

Chef Mario Castrellón's flagship and the first Central American restaurant to enter Latin America's 50 Best, Maito distills Panama's Afro-Antillean, Asian, Indigenous and Creole influences into a singular tasting menu. Ingredients sourced directly from Indigenous communities anchor each dish in place.

Fonda Lo Que Hay 

Chef José Olmedo Carles's tribute to the Panamanian fonda, tucked into a corrugated-metal, neon-lit dining room in Casco Antiguo that hums with the energy of a cocktail bar. A fixture on Latin America's 50 Best Discovery list, its menu turns homestyle classics — toasted yuca with tuna carpaccio, patacones, fresh ceviche — into something more theatrical, changing regularly to spotlight local produce. 

Cantina del Tigre

Chef Fulvio Miranda's celebrated kitchen reinvents traditional Panamanian cooking — ceviches, Afro-Caribbean flavours and house-brewed beer — in a vibrant, high-energy room. A Highest New Entry on Latin America's 50 Best, and a fixture on the list ever since.