Your 2024 Cultural Adventure Guide to Panama in 7 Days

If you’re looking for an up-to-date guide to Panama, look no further. We had the pleasure of visiting Panama in November 2023, during their shoulder season, and were nothing but pleasantly surprised by the trip. Panama has a delicious blend of Caribbean, Latin American, and South American cultural and food fusion. The country’s geography and location also lend itself to a mix of history, architecture, jungle, beach, and animals – perfect for a beach getaway, jungle hike, city experience, or run in with all the animals. We always do our research when it comes to top destinations, time spent on tours, places to stay, food, and itinerary optimization and share it with you here.

Why Visit Panama – Besides the Canal?

When we told people we were going to Panama, one of the first questions we got is – what is there to do there? See the canal?

The answer is, while yes, you can go see the famous Panama Canal, that is maybe like 10% of the top things you can do in Panama. Panama has a wetter environment, which creates a beautiful jungle full of hiking and animals to see. They grow their own coffee and make their own chocolate, so there are plenty tasting and tour options there. The northern coast of Panama is sprinkled with beautiful clear-blue islands. And some of them are completely uninhabited, which makes the perfect excursion or getaway. The most popular regions to visit are Boquete for a mountain/jungle/nature/coffee getaway, Bocas del Toro for a beach island weekend (more info here), and El Valle de Anton for the volcanos, waterfalls, and nature hikes.

And then there’s the heart, Panama City itself. Panama City actually has the strongest economy in all of Central America – it’s a huge business hub. This helps stimulate the incredible cultural food scene. Due to the great history of the canal, the city also has significant cultural roots. Old Panama and Casco Viejo (Old Town) boast beautiful historic buildings with influence from the Spanish, French, and Americans.

Top Things to Do in Panama

For a complete list to the Top Things to Do in Panama or Top Things to Do in Panama City, check out our blog posts and guides here. If we had to pick on 10 things to do in Panama, here would be our recommendation:

1. Visit the Panama Canal – more details can be found on our other blog post
2. Take a tour of Lake Gatun and Monkey island – the best tour can be found here and also takes you to the Panama Canal
3. Spend a few days in Bocas del Toro – check out our recommendations for these islands here
4. Dine at one of the Best Restaurants in Latin America – Maito, Fonda lo Que Hay, Intimo, or Cantina del Tigre. Get an advanced reservation!
5. Enjoy local Panamanian cuisine – either at a local restaurant, a food tour, or a cooking class.
6. Spend an afternoon in Casco Viejo, the “old town” of Panama City, where you can see the architecture and history of the French, Spanish, and American colonialism
7. Enjoy a seafood lunch at Mercado de Mariscos, the local fish market in Panama City.
8. Spend a few hours walking through Old Panama and visit the attached museum.
9. Take a day trip to the beautiful San Blas islands, better yet, take this all-inclusive tour to make it completely stress free: water sports, food, snorkeling, clear water beaches.
10. Hike a volcano crater in El Valle de Anton. This tour makes it an easy day trip from Panama City.

Google Map

As with all of our destinations, we save all the spots in a Google Map for your convenience. You can find the complete map of tagged locations in Panama below. Or, you can visit our Travel Maps page for all our destinations.

Before You Go

Best Time to Visit

The best time to visit Panama for the weather is during its dry season, which runs from December through February. However, that is also peak tourism season. If you want the best bang for your buck, we loved our experience travelling during the shoulder season of end of November. It’s right at the end of the wet season. Though it might rain, rain is typically in 1-2 hour pockets and doesn’t last the full day. The advantage here is lower crowds and better prices. We were seeing nice hotels for $100-$150/night and were able to get same-day reservations to globally renown restaurants.

How Many Days to Spend in Panama

To truly see the entire country, from west to east, you’d likely need 2 or more weeks. Unfortunately, with full time jobs and other destinations we want to visit with our PTO, 2 weeks isn’t possible for us. For those who are juggling PTO & money with their vacations, we’d recommend 7 days, with an absolute minimum of 5 days.

In 7 days, you can visit Panama City and another destination – either Bocas del Toro or Boquete. With more, you could do a full road-trip to 3-4 top destinations. With less, you could cram in Panama City and an island visit.

How to Get to Panama

Panama City has a fairly large and busy international airport, which connects to many places in North, Central, and South America. You can catch direct flights for $400-$500 from places like Chicago. It’s actually quite easy to get to – only a 5 hour flight from Chicago for a reasonable price for an international getaway.

If you’re tacking Panama onto a visit to Costa Rica, the southeast corner of Costa Rica is very close to Bocas del Toro, a hidden gem but growing destination we recommend visiting. You could likely drive or take a bus between the two.

How to Get Around Panama

Within a major city, such as Panama City, Ubers and Taxis are very affordable ($5/trip) and plentiful. Taxis on tiny islands like in Bocas del Toro can be as cheap as $1/person.

Between major cities, like if you wanted to go from Panama City to Boquete, you could rent a car, take a bus, or take a tiny plane via Air Panama. When we did a quick weekend in Bocas del Toro, the beautiful islands on the northern tip of Panama, we took a 45-minute flight via Air Panama. Air Panama is the only airline that services these domestic flights – you can’t find flights via your credit card or partner airline.

For those considering a road trip, Panama is very drivable and this would be a great way to optimize your time and get to destinations like David, Boquete, and even Bocas del Toro.

Guide to Panama: 7 Day Itinerary

Day 1: Arrival & Panama City – Casco Viejo

Depending on your arrival time to Panama City, you may have an afternoon or evening to explore. On your first day, we recommend heading straight to Casco Viejo, Panama’s City’s “Old Town” where you can see the blend of Spanish, French, and American influence.

This little neighborhood is great for a guided tour of the historic buildings, coffee tasting, rooftop bars, and delicious Panamanian food. We would spend a solid afternoon in Casco Viejo. And, if you have the money to spend or splurge, splurge it on a nice hotel in the neighborhood for a night.

For at least one of your meals, make sure you make a reservation at Fonda Lo Que Hay!. Their Panamanian Stew and green curry octopus are two of the best meals we had in all of Panama. And they are rightfully listed as one of the Top 50 Restaurants in Latin America in 2022, just barely missing the list (51st) in 2023.

Day 2: Panama City – Canal Tour

We recommend spending one full day in Panama City towards the beginning and one full day towards the end, that way you have time to settle in. Alternatively, you could go straight to Bocas del Toro or save Bocas for the end.

Regardless, on your first full day in Panama City, you should do the BEST tour on all of Viator for Panama: Ocean to Ocean Panama Canal and Jungle tour. We spent a solid hour pouring over tour options, and this one consistently came up as the best for time, destinations, reviews, and price. You get to see the canal, greet the Monkeys, explore the jungle, and see Gatun Lake all in one tour.

If you don’t have a full day to spend on a tour, then we recommend the half-day tour of Gatun Lake to get up close and personal with the monkeys. The key with this none is to do the early morning tour – less chances for rain (rain is typically in the afternoon) and higher chances of the monkeys coming straight onto the boat with you.

Day 3 & 4: Bocas del Toro

For AT LEAST two days of your trip, you’ll want to explore Bocas del Toro. Ideally, you should spend three full days here. Two days is a little rushed, but doable.

For full details on Bocas, check out our guides on Top Things to Do in Bocas and Bocas Travel Guide (coming soon).

For the quick and dirty, we recommend spending one full day doing the Zapatos Boat Tour for snorkeling, private island beach. The second day we recommend doing a tour or renting an ATV to Starfish Beach, doing the chocolate tour, and exploring the main island. A third day could be used to take a water taxi to Red Frog Beach and spending a beach day relaxing.

The tours in Bocas are best booked day before or day of with the locals. Your Airbnb or hotel host will know who to contact; there’s not much available online.

Day 5: Panama City

We intentionally put in another day in Panama City here, to account for travel back from Bocas. Otherwise, it could be nearly impossible to come back from Bocas and plan an excursion to our recommendations for Day 6. For lunch, check out the famous fish market, Mercado de Marisco.

For this short intermission, we recommend exploring the rest of Panama City. We’d highly recommend doing a bike tour to see Amador Causeway and Mirador de las Americas. And then catching an Uber or taxi to check out Old Panama.

For dinner, we recommend making a reservation at either Maito, Intimo, Cantina del Tigre, or Azahar. All of these restaurants are highly ranked – the first three on the current top 100 best restaurants in Latin America. If you’re traveling during peak season you’ll want an advanced reservation. Otherwise, you might be able to get a same-day reservation (we were able to get a spot at Maito the day before when we visited in November). Maito had a mind-blowing fried sea bass and black risotto that we still dream about.

Day 6: San Blas Islands or El Valle de Anton or Extra Day in Bocas

For your sixth day in Panama, choose from any of the following day trips: either spend a third day in Bocas earlier in your trip, do a full day excursion to San Blas, or book a tour/excursion/catch a bus to El Valle de Anton.

Each of these destinations has it’s own charm. Bocas would be great if you want to relax on a beach. San Blas, if you’re not already done with islands from Bocas, is a beautiful set of clear-water islands where you can snorkel and catamaran. You need to take a boat to visit San Blas. S,o we recommend booking this all-inclusive, full day tour that is well worth your money for the entire day. And lastly, El Valle de Anton is great if you want to do an adventure hike on volcanoes and through waterfalls. You can rent a car, take a bus, or book a tour (if you’re following our itinerary, we recommend doing the tour so you don’t need to worry about transportation, since none of our other activities involve a car).

Day 7: Panama City & Depart

Your last day in Panama is more of a flex day to get you ready to leave the city. Spend this last half day either visiting Casco Viejo, if you haven’t had a chance, or exploring the food scene. We recommend this bike tour or this unique food tour (this one sells out fast!) you can take of the city.

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