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◆ Country guide · Central America

Panama, two oceans and the country between them

Panama is narrow enough to see both oceans in a morning, and the canal that exploits the fact runs the country in ways a first trip underestimates. Everything else here (the Caribbean archipelagos, the cloud forest in the west, the empty Pacific peninsulas) sits off to the sides of that corridor and is reached from it.

4.2M

People

Region

Ropa vieja

Carimañola

Bollo

Best months

Jan–Apr

Ideal length

10–14 days

Budget / day

$90–190

Language

Spanish

Getting around

Domestic flights

When to visit Panama

One dry season the Pacific side is priced around, and a Caribbean coast that keeps a different calendar.

Full month guide →

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

Best: February and March, the driest and clearest end of the Pacific dry season Peak: late December and January, plus Carnival and Easter week, booked far ahead Good: April to July and September, warm with the rain still in afternoon bursts Wettest: October and November on the Pacific side, which is when Bocas del Toro is often at its best

Quick answer · which part of Panama to pick

Panama is a corridor with trips hanging off it. Panama City and the canal are the anchor, worth two or three days: Casco Antiguo, the locks, the rainforest of Parque Natural Metropolitano. Guna Yala is the postcard archipelago and takes the most planning: autonomous Guna territory, reached by 4x4 and boat, paid in cash. Bocas del Toro is the easier Caribbean. The Chiriquí highlands around Boquete are cool, for coffee, cloud forest and Volcán Barú. The Azuero Peninsula is the dry Pacific south.

Jump toMap Fun fact Stereotypes Famous faces Food FAQ

Fun fact

One number worth knowing

The Panama Canal is a freshwater staircase, and every transit spends water from Gatún Lake. The 2023 drought dropped the lake so far that daily slots fell from around 38 to 24, and fiscal 2024 saw 9,944 transits, about 29 per cent fewer. The lake also supplies drinking water to over half the nation.

Stereotypes, sorted out

What the brochure flattens, what the isthmus is actually like, and how to behave once you land.

"Panama is the canal, and not much else"

The realityThe canal is the spine and worth a day. It is also the shortest part of the trip. The country either side of it holds two coasts that behave nothing alike, an autonomous island archipelago, cloud forest cool enough for a jacket, and one of the densest bird lists on the continent.

"It is a stopover, not a destination"

The realityTocumen is the hub of the Americas and a lot of people see only its transit lounge. Panama is small enough that a stopover can be a real trip: the capital, a canal lock and El Valle de Antón fit comfortably into three days without a domestic flight.

"The San Blas islands are a beach resort"

The realityThey are Guna Yala, autonomous territory the Guna won by revolt in 1925 and have governed since through their own General Congress. You enter on their terms: a fee at the boundary, Guna boats and Guna-owned cabañas, cash only, and permission asked before a camera comes out.

"The Panama hat is Panamanian"

The realityIt is Ecuadorian, woven in Montecristi and Cuenca, and got its name because canal workers and travellers bought them here. Panama has its own hat and it is a different object: the sombrero pintao of the Azuero Peninsula, on the UNESCO intangible heritage list since 2017.

"It is hot and humid wherever you go"

The realityThe lowlands are, all year. Boquete and Cerro Punta sit high enough on the flank of Volcán Barú that mornings are cold, and the Azuero Peninsula is dry country. Pack for both or plan to buy a fleece in David.

The canal, and only the canalPanama hatsOffshore bankingA skyline that looks like MiamiOne palm tree on a white sandbankPirates and Spanish goldMolas in every gift shop

Cultural notes

Greet before you ask. A buenos días opens the exchange, and skipping it lands badly even in English.
The balboa and the US dollar are the same money. Notes are American, coins are Panamanian, and both spend without comment.
Guna Yala is a country within the country. Pay the entry fee, travel with Guna operators, and ask before photographing anyone or anything.
The day starts early and the afternoon belongs to the heat. Markets, hikes and boats are morning things.
Carnival, the four days before Ash Wednesday, closes most of the country and fills every bus and hotel on the Azuero Peninsula. Book far ahead or plan around it.
Panamanians distinguish the capital from "the interior", and it is a real cultural line. The food, the dress and the calendar change when you cross it.

Famous Panamanian faces

The names behind Panamanian salsa, boxing, baseball and the canal treaties. Pick a field.

Rubén Blades

Salsa singer and actor who made the form narrative journalism. Ran for president in 1994.

Mariano Rivera

Closing pitcher from Puerto Caimito. The first unanimous Hall of Fame election, in 2019.

Rod Carew

Born on a Canal Zone train. American League MVP in 1977 after batting .388.

Danilo Pérez

Jazz pianist of the Wayne Shorter Quartet. Founded the Panama Jazz Festival as a school.

Irving Saladino

Long jumper, and Panama's only Olympic gold medallist, at Beijing in 2008.

Omar Torrijos

General who negotiated the 1977 Torrijos-Carter Treaties, giving Panama the canal in 1999.

Erika Ender

Co-wrote "Despacito", Latin Grammy song of the year in 2017, and hundreds of other songs.

Ricardo Miró

The national poet, author of "Patria". The main literary prize carries his name.

Roberto Durán

Manos de Piedra, world champion in four weight classes from lightweight to middleweight.

Mireya Moscoso

Born in Pedasí. First woman elected president, 1999 to 2004, as the canal was handed over.

Manny Sanguillén

Pirates catcher of the 1970s, in the first all-Black and Latino major-league lineup, 1971.

Rolando Blackman

Born in Panama City. Four-time NBA All-Star, mostly with the Dallas Mavericks.

Rogelio Sinán

Pen name of Bernardo Domínguez Alba, who brought modernism to Panamanian writing in 1929.

Carlos Eleta Almarán

Composer of "Historia de un Amor", recorded by hundreds of singers in a dozen languages.

Must-try Panamanian food

A national soup ordered as a cure, a Caribbean coast that cooks in coconut, and the most expensive coffee on earth. Pick a category.

Ropa vieja

Beef shredded and stewed in tomato, onion and pepper, sweeter here than in Cuba.

Carimañola

Mashed yuca around seasoned beef, deep fried into a torpedo. The street breakfast.

Bollo

Corn or yuca dough boiled in its own husk, sold in pairs at roadside stands.

Raspao

Shaved ice under fruit syrup and condensed milk, scraped to order off a handcart block.

Chicheme

Cracked corn with milk, cinnamon and vanilla, drunk cold. Penonomé claims it.

Sancocho de gallina

The national dish: hen simmered with yam and culantro, taken as a cure as often as a meal.

Arroz con pollo

Rice with chicken, peppers and achiote. The plate at every birthday, wake and Sunday meal.

Guacho

Soupy rice with pigeon peas and salt pork or seafood, from Darién and the Caribbean coast.

Tamal panameño

Corn masa around chicken or pork, steamed in plantain leaf. Christmas food, made all year.

Hojaldre

Puffed, faintly sweet fried flatbread, torn to chase egg, cheese or beef at breakfast.

Tortilla de maíz

A thick fried corn cake, nothing like the Mexican one, eaten at breakfast with cheese.

Empanadas de maíz

Corn turnovers of chicken or beef, fried hard and eaten standing at the counter.

Ceviche de corvina

Sea bass cured in lime and habanero, sold by the cup at the Mercado de Mariscos.

Pescado frito entero

Whole fish fried hard, with patacones and lime. The lunch where the boats land.

Rondón

Caribbean stew of fish, coconut milk, yuca and plantain. Best in Bocas and Portobelo.

Patacones

Green plantain fried, flattened and fried again. Arrives with nearly everything.

Arroz con coco y guandú

Coconut rice with pigeon peas, the Afro-Caribbean staple of Colón and Bocas del Toro.

Cocada

Coconut and sugar cooked to a chewy square, sold from jars at roadside stalls.

Seco Herrerano

Cane spirit from Herrera, the national drink, taken with milk and ice as seco con leche.

Geisha coffee

Boquete grows the varietal that keeps breaking auction records: $13,705 a pound in 2025.

Know before you go

The essentials for planning a Panama trip: entry, money, power and the roads.

Currency

Balboa (PAB), pegged one to one with the US dollar

The peg has held since 1904 and the two trade at par. ATMs give American notes, change often comes in balboa coins, and there is nothing to convert.

Language

Spanish

English is common in Panama City, in banking and the canal trades, and in Bocas del Toro beside an Afro-Antillean creole. Guna, Ngäbere and Emberá live on in their comarcas.

Power

110 V, 60 Hz, type A and B sockets

The same plugs and the same voltage as the United States, so North American electronics need no adapter and European ones need both a plug and a check of the label.

Emergency

Ambulance 911, police 104, fire 103

Panama does not use 112. The tourist police, Politur, are a separate unit posted in Casco Antiguo, Bocas del Toro and the other visitor areas.

Visa

Visa-free for most Western passports

US and Canadian citizens get up to 180 days, most other exempt nationalities 90. Bring a passport valid three months past arrival, onward travel and proof of funds. The limit is enforced.

Getting around

Domestic flights, the Pan-American Highway, buses and boats

The highway runs to David and the Costa Rican border, and long-distance buses leave from Albrook by the metro. Bocas del Toro and Guna Yala are a short flight or a boat away.

Tipping

Around 10 per cent

Restaurants add a service charge in some places and not others, so check the bill. Ten per cent is the norm where nothing is included, and small notes are the way to thank guides, porters and boatmen.

Cash

Essential in Guna Yala and on the islands

Cards work in Panama City and the larger towns. Most Guna Yala islands have no ATM and take no cards, and the smaller Bocas islands are patchy. Draw cash on the mainland.

The Darién Gap

Not a route

The roadless rainforest on the Colombian border is a national park, a migration corridor and a place foreign ministries advise against entering. Travel between the two countries goes by air or by sea.

Panama travel FAQ

How many days do you need in Panama?+

Ten to fourteen days covers the country properly: three in Panama City and on the canal, three or four in one Caribbean archipelago, and three or four in the Chiriquí highlands. A long weekend still works if you stay inside the canal corridor and El Valle de Antón.

When is the best time to visit Panama?+

February and March, at the dry end of the Pacific dry season that runs from mid-December to April. Bocas del Toro is the exception and keeps its own calendar, often at its driest in September and October when the rest of the country is wettest.

What currency does Panama use?+

The balboa, pegged one to one with the US dollar since 1904. In practice American notes circulate and the coins are Panamanian, so there is no exchange to arrange. Carry cash for Guna Yala and the smaller islands, where cards and ATMs mostly are not.

Can you see the Panama Canal without transiting it?+

Yes. The canal authority runs visitor centres at the Miraflores locks on the Pacific side and at Agua Clara on the Caribbean, both with viewing terraces over a working lock. Partial transits by tourist boat are the middle option if you want to be lifted.

Do you need a car in Panama?+

Not for the capital, where traffic is heavy and the metro and taxis are easier. A car earns its keep on the Azuero Peninsula and in the highlands, where buses are slow and infrequent. Guna Yala and Bocas del Toro are reached by boat or by air, so a car is dead weight there.

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