North AmericaPanamaPanama
Panama is the hinge of the Americas, and most people take it as one leg of a longer run. A canal you watch a ship climb through, the most expensive coffee on earth walked farm by farm at Boquete, and whale sharks off Coiba. One trip in nine plans it alone, and those have the place to themselves.
PanamaPanama in a nutshell
Where to go in Panama
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Routes that work
Panama itineraries, one week to three
Panama is loved by culture seekers and backpackers alike. We recommend several routes through this country, here they are in full!
5 nights5 days, the canal and the capital
Panama City · El Valle
the short trip almost everyone actually takes, and the one our own data describes: the capital is on 87% of Panamanian trips and holds a two-night median. Casco Viejo and Panamá Viejo take a day, the locks and a rainforest walk take another, and El Valle is two and a half hours out by bus for a crater village, a waterfall and cool air.
7 nights7 days, the Caribbean pair
Panama City · San Blas Islands · Bocas Del Toro
one week, both archipelagos, and nothing else. They are nothing like each other: Guna Yala is cabins, hammocks and no electricity after dark, Bocas is a stilt town with bars on the water. Bocas holds travellers longer than anywhere else in the country, a four-night median against the capital's two.
10 nights10 days: the west, for the second visit
Panama City · David · Boquete
skips the capital and spends the time in Chiriquí and on the Caribbean instead, which is what a second trip usually wants. David is a bus change rather than a destination, and our own data agrees: two thirds of its stops are single nights. Boquete earns four for the volcano, the coffee farms and the cloud forest.
14 nights14 days, the standard Panama loop
Panama City · El Valle · Santa Catalina
the fortnight that covers both coasts and the highlands without doubling back, and it matches the tightest coupling in our own data, where El Valle, Santa Catalina and Boquete pull each other well above their floors. Hire a car for the middle stretch, because El Valle to Santa Catalina is four or five bus changes and about eight hours, and take the bus for the rest.
21 nights21 days, both coasts and the Azuero
Panama City · San Blas Islands · El Valle
three weeks is what it takes to add Guna Yala and the folkloric peninsula to the loop, and February to March is the one window when the Pacific and the Caribbean are dry at the same time. San Blas goes early because it is reached and left from the capital; the Azuero is the part almost no guide covers.
Updated August 2026 · 14 min read · Written by the Stippl editorsPanama is the land bridge between Costa Rica and Colombia, with a Caribbean coast and a Pacific coast a couple of hours apart, and it is planned as a leg of an overland run far more often than as a destination in itself. The share of our travellers who plan it alone is 11.5%.
The currency is the US dollar and it is the reason Panama feels expensive. The balboa is fixed one to one and circulates only as coins; US notes are the paper money. Prices read high against Nicaragua or Guatemala even where the underlying cost is not.
Balboa coins are struck to US specifications, the same weight, metal and diameter, so change from Panama physically works in an American vending machine.
Who Panama is for
Overlanders
Panama is the hinge of the isthmus, and our own data says so: the pairing order is Costa Rica 53.2% · Colombia 43.7% · Guatemala 38.9% · Mexico 35.5% · Nicaragua 35.1% · Peru 30.0%.
Surfers
the Pacific has the size and the consistency, and Santa Catalina is the country's surf town.
Divers
Coiba is the best Pacific diving in Central America, with whale sharks and mantas; Bocas is the gentler Caribbean version.
Birdwatchers
close to 1,000 species, purpose-built towers, and almost no crowds.
Budget backpackers
the hostel network reaches genuinely remote towns, and buses cost roughly a dollar an hour.
Coffee travellers
Boquete grows the most expensive coffee on earth and you can walk the farms.
City people with three days
Casco Viejo, the locks and a rainforest walk fit into a long weekend from almost anywhere in the Americas.
The best time to visit Panama
- December to April is the dry season on the Pacific side and in the highlands, and it is also peak pricing and the months when the Azuero beaches and the canal viewpoints are busiest. Book the islands ahead.
- May to November is green season, not a washout. Rain tends to arrive in the afternoon and the landscape is at its best; prices drop.
- September and October are the wettest months on the Pacific side and the two that most reliably cancel boats, which matters because the San Blas and Bocas crossings are both open-water runs in small craft. The Caribbean is drier then.
- Our own travellers peak in January and empty out in June. The peak is January 14.2% of planned starts and the trough is June 5.3%, a ratio of 2.7 to 1, and it tracks the Pacific dry season rather than the Caribbean one.
- Most people book about eleven weeks out. A typical Panama trip is created 77 days before it starts, and around 19.1% of them go up inside a fortnight of departure.
- Carnaval runs the four days before Ash Wednesday, which in 2027 means Saturday 6 to Tuesday 9 February. Las Tablas in Azuero holds the fierce one, with the Calle Arriba and Calle Abajo rivalry and the culecos water trucks; Panama City runs its own. Transport and beds go early.
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Things to do in Panama
A ship through the locks
Watch a ship come through at Miraflores on the Pacific side, the famous one, about €18, or at Agua Clara on the Caribbean side, newer, a third of the price and the expansion locks. The canal authority posts the transit windows daily; go when a ship is actually there.
Guna Yala
Sail or fly to the San Blas archipelago, governed by the Guna, who run the islands, the rules and the boats; a night on an island in a hut is about €80 with the transfer and meals. The strongest image the country has, and there is no wifi.
Diving Coiba
Dive the former prison island turned marine park from Santa Catalina, with whale sharks and mantas and the best Pacific diving in Central America, about €150 for two dives with the park fee. December to April for the visibility.
Volcán Barú overnight
Leave Boquete around eleven at night for the 13.5 kilometres and six to eight hours up from the ranger station to the summit for sunrise, when both oceans are visible if the sky is clear. A guide is about €70; a four-wheel drive to the top is the lazy version.
A coffee farm in Boquete
Walk a farm where the Geisha coffee that sells for hundreds of euros a kilo is grown, about €30 with a tasting. Mornings, and the harvest runs from November to March.
Casco Viejo at dusk
Walk the colonial quarter of Panama City when it lights up under the tower skyline across the bay, free. The rooftop bars along the bóvedas are the sunset, and the plaza restaurants the dinner.
What to eat in Panama
Chicken and root-vegetable stew, the national comfort dish
Sea bass cured in lime and chilli
Shredded beef in tomato
Yuca fritters stuffed with meat or cheese
Twice-fried green plantain, the default side
Saffron-tinted rice with chicken
Shaved ice under fruit syrup and condensed milk
The most expensive coffee in the world, grown in Boquete
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Panama customs and what not to do
Greet before you ask
a handshake and a buenos días come before the question, and skipping them reads as rudeness rather than efficiency.
Photographs are paid for
in Guna Yala a portrait is a transaction with a customary fee, and the molas are the same artisans' livelihood.
Bargaining has a narrow range
craft markets and informal vendors expect it, shops and metered taxis do not.
Modest dress inland
churches and rural communities in particular; swimwear stays on the sand.
The Panama hat is Ecuadorian
it is named for the isthmus because that is where they were sold to canal workers, and Panama's own straw tradition is the Azuero sombrero pintado.
Do
- Greet people before asking anything, and use usted with strangers.
- Carry small notes, and expect reluctance at anything over US$20.
- Ask the fare before you get into a taxi outside Panama City.
- Buy molas from the women who stitched them, in Guna Yala.
Don't
- Do not photograph Guna people without asking and paying.
- Do not assume the Pan-American Highway continues into Colombia, because it does not.
- Do not plan a beach day on the Pacific without asking locally about the current.
- Do not count on an ATM in the islands; Bocas and Guna Yala run short.
What a Panama trip costs
Budget
€34
hostel dorms, local buses, comedor meals
Mid-range
€86
private rooms, the odd domestic flight, guided days
Luxury
€215
eco-lodges, private boats, Casco Viejo boutique hotels
Track what you actually spend
Set a daily budget per country and log expenses in any currency while you travel.
Visas, SIM cards and getting around
Entry & visa
Ninety days, not 180
Most nationalities get up to 3 months visa-free by land or air. The 180-day figure still circulating is the old rule.
Health
Good care only in the capital
Private hospitals there are good and facilities elsewhere are limited.
Money
The US dollar is the cash.
No exchange is needed for anyone carrying dollars, and arriving with euros or pounds means a poor rate at a casa de cambio.
Connectivity
A tourist SIM is US$10 to US$15
Claro, Tigo and Movistar sell 5 to 10 GB at the airport.
Water
Drinkable in most places
The FCDO says tap water is safe in most of Panama with local advice to be followed in rural and island areas; our own data carries tapWaterSafe: false.
Tipping
Ten per cent
Restaurants expect it and sometimes add it already; taxis get rounded up; porters get US$1 to US$2 a bag.
Power & practicalities
110V, plugs A and B
The same as the United States, which is unusual for the region and useful to know.
Language
Spanish everywhere, English in three places
Spanish is official and near-universal, and English is common in Panama City, Bocas del Toro and Boquete and rare outside them.
Spanish worth knowing
Nobody expects you to speak the language, which is exactly why a handful of words goes so far.
KOH-moh es-TAHS
How are you? · ¿Cómo estás?
KWAN-toh KWES-tah
How much does it cost? · ¿Cuánto cuesta?
OO-nah FREE-ah por fah-VOR
A cold one, please · Una fría, por favor
CHEH-veh-reh
Great, and you will hear it constantly · Chévere
BWEH-nah ON-dah
Good vibes · Buena onda
al CHEE-leh
Seriously, for real · Al chile
Panama questions, answered
Two weeks covers the capital, the highlands and one coast; three weeks adds the Azuero and both coasts. Our own travellers give each stop 2 nights and run 43 days across the whole trip.
Neither the UK nor the US advises against travel to Panama. Both restrict the Darién border region and the Mosquito Gulf, and both name ordinary urban crime as the real risk, including in Casco Viejo.
Most nationalities get 90 days visa-free by land or air, with an onward ticket and proof of funds. The 180-day figure still circulating is out of date.
The US dollar. The balboa is fixed one to one and exists only as coins struck to US specifications.
December to April on the Pacific side and in the highlands. The Caribbean runs a different calendar and is driest in February to March and again in August to September.
No. The Pan-American Highway stops at the Darién and there is no road through; vehicles are shipped around it.
The locks at Miraflores are open daily and cost US$7.22 to US$17.22 for non-residents including the film. It is a working waterway rather than a spectacle, and opinions divide sharply.
A 4x4 transfer from Panama City to the port at Cartí, about two and a half hours, then a boat. The road is steep and a private car is not an option.
Coiba on the Pacific, for whale sharks and mantas, reached from Santa Catalina. Bocas del Toro is the gentler Caribbean alternative.
Every guide is written by the Stippl editors and checked against the trips our travellers actually plan. Spotted something out of date? Let us know.
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