Panama City: Beyond Casco Viejo
Panama City: Beyond Casco Viejo
Most visitors never leave Casco Viejo and the canal, which is understandable, but it means a handful of genuinely good stops sit almost empty while the old town’s plazas fill up with tour groups. Here’s what’s worth the detour.
Parque Natural Metropolitano
This urban rainforest reserve sits near Albrook, minutes from downtown, and it’s one of the only places in a capital city anywhere in the hemisphere where you can walk into genuine forest without a car or a boat. Trails wind through the canopy with a real chance of spotting howler monkeys, coatis, and a long list of resident birds. It gets a fraction of the visitors Ancon Hill does, mostly because it doesn’t have the skyline view to advertise itself with, but the wildlife is just as real.
Punta Pacifica and Multiplaza
Punta Pacifica is the upscale high-rise neighborhood most visitors skip entirely on the way between Casco Viejo and the airport, and Multiplaza, the mall at its center, is worth an hour if you want a break from tourist-zone pricing. It’s quieter than Marbella or El Cangrejo, closer to Miraflores and the airport, and gives a genuinely different read on the city than the colonial peninsula does, modern towers rather than restored plazas.
The Panama Viejo cathedral tower at opening
Panama Viejo, the 1519 city Henry Morgan’s raiders destroyed in 1671, gets its share of visitors, but almost none of them arrive at opening. Go early and the cathedral tower, still climbable for a view over the stone foundations toward the modern skyline behind them, is yours without a line or a crowd of people photographing the same ruins. It’s the same site everyone visits, just at the one hour of day when it’s actually quiet.
Amador Causeway past the Biomuseo
Most visitors treat the Causeway as a Biomuseo stop and leave. The marinas and waterfront restaurants further along the strip, past the crowds clustered near Gehry’s building, are worth the extra ten minutes of walking, especially for a sunset dinner with the same skyline view and none of the queue.
Two more worth a mention
Ancon Hill’s free canal-and-skyline panorama and the Cinta Costera’s evening walk both deserve a slot on any trip, and our things worth doing guide covers both in full rather than repeating them here. Marbella and El Cangrejo, the neighborhoods where the city actually eats dinner, get their own coverage in our best places to eat guide.
Getting to any of these
None of these five need a rental car. Uber covers Punta Pacifica and the Metropolitan park easily, and Panama Viejo is a short ride from Casco Viejo at opening time. Our Panama City travel tips page has the rest of the logistics.