Panama holidays

The Panama Canal is the country's defining historical-engineering accomplishment and rewards proper exploration. The original 1914 canal (begun by the French under Ferdinand de Lesseps 1881 — a financial and humanitarian disaster that killed 22,000 workers from yellow fever and accidents — completed by the United States 1903-1914 after Theodore Roosevelt orchestrated Panama's independence from Colombia specifically to secure the canal rights) is one of the great industrial-engineering achievements of all time. The 2016 expansion added new larger locks (the Cocolí Locks on the Pacific side, the Agua Clara Locks on the Atlantic side) capable of handling "neo-Panamax" ships. The Miraflores Locks Visitor Center on the Pacific side is the most-accessible experience — 4 viewing platforms, a museum, the IMAX about the canal's history, and the live commentary as ships transit. The Agua Clara Visitor Center on the Atlantic side at Colón offers a similar experience for the newer locks. The genuine cargo-ship transit is the most-impressive — locks rise and fall 26 metres in 8-minute cycles, with mules (the small electric trains alongside the locks) keeping the massive container ships precisely aligned.

Casco Viejo is the country's headline urban-cultural experience. Founded 1673 as the relocation site after Henry Morgan's sack of Panama Viejo, the neighbourhood combines Spanish colonial, French neoclassical (the late-1800s French canal-construction era influence), and American Caribbean architecture. After decades of decline (the neighbourhood was a slum into the 1990s), Casco Viejo has been progressively gentrified and is now Panama's most-photogenic district. Headline spots: the Iglesia San José with its supposedly-original 17th-century gold altar (the legend is that the altar was painted black during Morgan's sack so the pirates wouldn't take it — though modern scholarship questions whether the story is true), Plaza Mayor with the Metropolitan Cathedral, the Iglesia y Convento de Santo Domingo (the Flat Arch ruined chapel — used by the United States to argue that Panama was earthquake-safe enough for the Canal), the Teatro Nacional, the modern art scene at MAC Panama, and the rooftop bars (the Tantalo Hotel rooftop, Casa Casco, the splurge Selavi).

Bocas del Toro is the country's Caribbean island headline. The archipelago of 9 main islands sits in a calm-water bay near the Costa Rican border — accessible via 50-minute flight from Panama City to Isla Colón, or via 6-hour bus from Panama City to Almirante then 30-minute boat. The main town Bocas Town (on Isla Colón) is the budget-and-backpacker hub with beachside restaurants, dive shops, and the morning fish-market that doubles as the local social centre. Red Frog Beach (on Bastimentos) is the headline beach — accessible via a $5 boat from Bocas Town, with the namesake red poison-dart frogs in the surrounding jungle. The Sapphire Cliffs on Bastimentos' east side are dramatic. Snorkelling at Cayos Zapatillas (the two small cays at the southern edge of the marine park) is excellent. Splurge accommodation: Nayara Bocas del Toro on a private island.

Boquete is the highland coffee-and-cloud-forest town in the Chiriquí Province near the Costa Rican border. The Geisha coffee variety (originally from Ethiopia, planted at Hacienda La Esmeralda in the 1960s, identified as exceptional in the 2004 Best of Panama competition) has become the world's most-prized specialty coffee — the 2019 Lamastus Family Estates Geisha sold for $1,029/lb at auction. Coffee tours at La Esmeralda, Finca Lerida and other major estates offer the genuine experience. Volcán Barú at 3,475m is the country's highest peak — the overnight hike (typically starting at midnight to summit for sunrise) lets you see both the Pacific and Atlantic oceans from the summit (the only mountain in Central America with the dual-ocean view). The Pipeline Trail through the cloud forest near Boquete is the easiest birdwatching for the resplendent quetzal — best with a guide like Boquete Tree Trek or Coffee Adventures.

The San Blas islands (officially Guna Yala) are the autonomous Indigenous territory of the Guna people on 365 small islands along the Caribbean coast east of Colón. The Guna have their own elected congress, language (Dulegaya), traditional dress (women in mola embroidered blouses with gold nose-rings — the molas are textile-art with collector value), and cultural protocols. Visits are arranged through Guna-owned tour operators (San Blas Sailing, San Blas Adventures, the Yandup Island Lodge for the splurge) — typically 3-5 day sailing trips visiting multiple islands, sleeping on the boat or in traditional Guna huts on the islands. The Caribbean is calm and the snorkelling is genuine — but the cultural experience of the Guna community is the trip's real value.

UK travellers don't need a visa for stays up to 180 days. Panama uses the US Dollar; cards work universally in Panama City and Bocas, cash is king for rural and Bocas Town. Spanish is the lingua franca but Panama City's commercial sector has wide English use given the Canal Zone history (the canal was under US administration 1903-1999, with the Canal Zone running parallel to the canal as effectively US territory until the Carter-Torrijos Treaty handover in 1999). The food: sancocho de gallina (the chicken-and-corn-and-coriander national dish), ceviche at the Casco Viejo Mercado de Mariscos (the fish-market with the upstairs ceviche bar), the Bocas del Toro Caribbean-Creole influences (rondón seafood-and-coconut stew, the Caribbean rice with coconut), and excellent specialty coffee from Boquete (Geisha varietal as the headline).

Best for: Caribbean-and-city combination travellers, those interested in the Panama Canal logistics and history (Roosevelt-and-de-Lesseps engineering stories), surfers (Santa Catalina is the headline Pacific break), birdwatchers (Boquete's quetzals are bucket-list), Indigenous-culture-curious travellers (San Blas Guna and Darien Embera communities), Geisha-coffee enthusiasts. Often combined with Colombia (Cartagena is 1.5 hours by flight) or Costa Rica.