my husband and i will be traveling to panama for two weeks this upcoming january!
we would like to experience as much of the country in as we can.
..any helpful tips would be appreciated!
rent a car?
hire a driver/tour guide?
history/architecture/bookstore are of particular interest and we are both professional chefs so local food and markets are mandatory!
thank you, everyone!
It’s been a few years but I’ll start things off. Temper your expectations. Panama is worth a visit and I enjoyed four days there, but two weeks is a long time. The old part of Panama City is interesting for half a day. The rest of Panama City is modern, chaotic sprawl. Visit the canal locks of course, and there is good rain forest hiking in nearby parks, and we enjoyed hiring a taxi to take us a bit north to El Valle, and a ferry for a bit of beach at Taboga Island. We saw little evidence of interesting food. There are tropical fruits and fresh fish, but no real indigenous cuisine. It’s either rice and beans, or the kind of restaurant that caters to businessmen coming for the purpose of Panama’s vibrant money laundering economy.
The highlight of any trip to Panama is a transit of the canal or at least one of series of the historic locks. I would definitely look for options to do this. I only spent a brief time there ( a canal transit and a day in Panama City), but I’m pretty sure that if I were going to spend 2 weeks there, only a few days would be in Panama City and then I would out into a more rural area.
Doing the transit of the canal is great.
I can't see doing two weeks in Panama, consider splitting time with Costa Rica.
We spent a week and a half in Panama a couple of summers ago. We could have happily filled more time there, but that was the time we had. We didn't transit the canal, but we took a cruise on Lake Gatun as part of a guided hike. We also saw the locks at the museum near the city. We went out to the Azuero peninsula (with many interesting stops along the way), which was the departure point for our guided camping/snorkeling/hiking trip on Coiba Island. We ended with three nights in El Valle. There were other places we were interested in, but didn't have time. I can easily imagine filling two weeks just by extending time at the places we went, not even adding other stops. We plan to return.
We rented a car, but didn't drive in the capital except briefly to get to the hotel. It was a little hairy. But leaving the city and driving elsewhere in the country was very easy.
If you drive southwest through Capira, don't miss a stop at Quesos Chela for empanadas and chicheme (a drink). We stopped both times we passed.
thank you for the positive and helpful remarks, HK!
if you have any more tips on Azuero peninsula, i would appreciate them-specifically Pedasi, if you visted there.
thank you again!
We didn't visit Pedasi because our trip was too short. We were on the western side of the peninsula. We organized our Coiba Island tour through Tanager Ecotours and stayed at their base Hotel Heliconia. We had a great experience, and I would recommend their tours.
