Panama City

Panama City is raw and exciting, and the starting point for a must-see traverse along the famous Panama Canal. You’ll need to take taxis after dark as street crime makes it a bit dodgy, but the place quickly grows on you. Stay amid Casco Viejo’s winding and historic streets and visit the ruins of old Panama Vieja, destroyed by the murderous pirate Henry Morgan in 1671. Clear your lungs with a stroll around the city’s surprising rainforest national park and sip a drink at Balboa Yacht Club while watching mega ocean liners start their Panama Canal traverse.

National parks

The national parks are as good as Costa Rica’s, particularly the Darién wilderness, reserved for hardcore travellers who really want to get off the beaten track. Panama has miles of untamed jungle, misty cloudforests and a wealth of fauna for wildlife buffs, but without the crowds of tourists and packed air-conditioned coaches you’ll find over the border.

Ocean to ocean

Small and diverse, it’s possible to swim in two different oceans in one day, from the calm waters of the Caribbean side to the swell-buffeted Pacific.

Caribbean charm

The Caribbean islands around Boca del Toro and San Blas are just as inviting as in the days when they were ravaged by British pirates. This region is fast becoming one of Panama’s most popular with visitors.

Culture

You’ll come across a wide range of cultural experiences — Panama is home to seven Indian tribes, Antillian and Spanish Colonial culture, historic monuments and a World Heritage Site, Casco Antiguo.

Indigenous experiences

On the palm-fringed islands of the San Blas Archipelago, off the southern Caribbean coast of Panama, live the Kuna Indians. Fiercely independent and 40,000-strong, the Kuna have long maintained and defended their traditions of fishing, farming and trading coconuts with the Colombian schooners that ply the waters.

While there is little in the way infrastructure for tourism, a few resourceful Kuna have developed low-key family-run resorts on some of the islands. By staying with a family, you are naturally involved in the happenings of daily life and are accepted as guests in the village. Many of the Kuna are no taller than 5ft and it is believed that they are the smallest humans after the Pygmies. With their nose rings of gold, legs and arms covered in beads and wearing traditional clothing of a zillion different colours, they are outrageously photogenic.

Surfing

Wave riders will find Panama a dream, with Bocas Del Toro, Boquete, and the surfing areas of the west coast full of quality, uncrowded waves.