8 Panama Hotels in Casco Viejo and the Islands

A ship crossing Panama does not go through at sea level. It is lifted twenty-six metres above the ocean by three flights of locks, sails across an artificial lake, and is lowered again on the other side. Gatún Lake, created by damming the Chagres River in 1913, was the largest artificial lake in the world when it was made, and the canal is essentially a bridge of fresh water over the isthmus.

The water is not pumped. Every lock chamber fills by gravity from the lake above, and each transit sends something in the order of two hundred million litres out to sea. The lake is refilled by rainfall on the surrounding watershed and nothing else.

Which is why drought is an existential problem for the canal rather than an inconvenience. In recent years low water levels have forced the authority to cut the number of daily transits and impose draft restrictions, with consequences for global shipping schedules. If you are watching ships from the Miraflores visitor centre, the number going through may be lower than the canal was built to handle.

Casco Viejo, and why the city moved

The original Panama City was sacked and burned by Henry Morgan in 1671. What survived was abandoned and the city was rebuilt two years later on a defensible peninsula a few kilometres west, behind a sea wall. That second city is Casco Viejo — Spanish, French and early American colonial buildings on a grid, UNESCO-listed, and largely derelict until a restoration wave from the 2000s.

The ruins of the first city, Panamá Viejo, are still standing at the other end of the modern metropolis, with a cathedral tower you can climb.

The country beyond the canal

Panama City has the canal, the two old cities and a skyline of towers that surprises people expecting something smaller.

Bocas del Toro, on the Caribbean side near Costa Rica, is an archipelago of mangrove and reef islands reached by a short flight or a long drive and a boat.

Boquete, in the western highlands at 1,200 metres, is coffee country with a cool climate and cloud forest.

The Pearl Islands and Isla Palenque, in the Pacific, have the quieter resorts.

The eight below are grouped that way.

Casco Viejo

The rebuilt colonial city.

Sofitel Legend Casco Viejo occupies a former eighteenth-century convent and nineteenth-century buildings behind restored façades, with a rooftop pool over the old city and the towers across the bay.

American Trade Hotel sits in a restored 1917 building with a rooftop pool, a jazz club in the basement and an interior of considerable care. It is the building that started the quarter's revival.

La Compañía, a Luxury Collection Hotel occupies a colonial palace with courtyards, several restaurants and a design of deliberate excess.

Las Clementinas sits in a quiet corner of Casco Viejo in a small restored house with a handful of apartments and a garden.

The modern city

Towers and the bay.

The Bristol Panama occupies a tower in the financial district with a spa, a pool and the most polished service in the country.

Bocas del Toro

The Caribbean archipelago.

Nayara Bocas del Toro occupies a stretch of beach and mangrove on Isla Bastimentos with villas on the water, jungle behind and a sloth rescue centre next door.

The Pacific islands and the highlands

Isla Palenque occupies a private island in the Gulf of Chiriquí with casitas among the forest, several beaches and no other development on it.

Panamonte Inn & Spa sits in Boquete in a 1914 inn among coffee farms, with gardens, a spa and cloud forest above.

What we have left off

The over-water cabin rentals across Bocas del Toro are excluded, and in the archipelago they are how a great many visitors stay. They are cabins rather than hotels.

What to do

Watch a transit at Miraflores or the Agua Clara locks on the Atlantic side, and time it — ships come through in clusters and the visitor centres publish the expected schedule.

Walk Casco Viejo in the evening and eat there, and take the seafront causeway walk toward the Cinta Costera for the skyline.

Go into the rainforest. Soberanía National Park is forty minutes from the city and the Pipeline Road in it is among the best birdwatching in the Americas.

Fly to Bocas for a few days of reef and mangrove, or to the Pacific islands for emptier beaches.

Drink the coffee at source in Boquete, where Geisha varietals have set world auction records.

Practical notes

Tocumen is a major hub with connections across the Americas. Bocas and David are short domestic flights.

December to April is the dry season and the best window. May to November is wetter, with heavy afternoon rain. The Caribbean side has a different pattern and can be wet at any time.

The country uses the US dollar alongside the balboa, at parity.

How does the canal work?

Ships are lifted twenty-six metres through locks, cross an artificial lake and are lowered again. The water is gravity-fed from rainfall and never pumped.

Why does drought matter?

Every transit sends about two hundred million litres to sea. Low lake levels have forced cuts to daily transits in recent years.

Casco Viejo or the towers?

Casco Viejo for the architecture, the restaurants and the walking. The financial district for business and a spa.

How many nights?

Six. Two in the city and four at Bocas or the Pacific islands.

If you only book one