PANAMA

Information and travel tips for Panama

We present here photos, complete information and travel diary on the green and fascinating State of Panama.
Why go? Panama is an ideal destination for nature lovers: it offers two oceans, lush mountains, Caribbean islands and tropical fauna. It is one of the safest countries in Central America, yet it is little frequented by tourists. The population is nice and warm. What do you want more?

When to go? The best time for a travel itinerary in Panama goes from mid-December to mid-April, the dry season that guarantees sun and very few precipitations ... at least on the peaceful coast. In most cases, in these months you can enjoy the Caribbean Sea too, but here there is always a certain risk of sudden rains. Easily bearable, however, since the temperature is constantly around 28 degrees.
How to move? A rental car is obviously the best way if you are in a group and you want to travel in freedom, coming out of the bus streets from the buses and the main tourist itineraries. If you are alone or if you want to concentrate your vacation on the islands, however, it can be more convenient to move by bus and boat.
To rent a car here at the best prices for your travel itinerary I absolutely recommend by Search And book this link .
How much does it cost? You can sleep with ten euros each at night and dine with even less. The flight will probably be the biggest spending on the holiday, about 700 euros from Italy if you find the right offer. The trip to Isla Coiba is relatively expensive (about 300 euros for three days and two nights, all included), but absolutely unmissable: it is a national park isolated from the world, after all.
Keep in mind that in what is the coast I take into account the whole journey ... from the airport to the airport of departure to the drink passing through meals and souvenirs.
For an idea on hotel prices in Panama Click here to compare hotels and find the most convenient accommodation.

Where to go? In theory, the most fascinating places are Santa Catalina, Isla Coiba, Bocas del Toro, San Blas, Boquete. Also, they often part of the Travel routes to Panama also Boca Chica, Las Lajas, Panama City and the channel. In practice, along the streets of Panama often happens to see landscapes that invite to stops and deviations not provided. SECLUSE BAIE, Green mountains, Desert beaches: there is something for everyone.
Other destinations? The travel route described here can be added colon and portobel to the Caribbean coast. The possibilities of "interruption" are also interesting: on the one hand it is easily reachable, by bus or by car, Costa Rica, on the other is Cartagena (in Colombia), where you can arrive in a few days of navigation.

Travel Diary in Panama

Together with the girl and a couple of friends, we decided to explore Panama's state aboard a jeep. On December 16th we took the flight from Milan to Panama City with a long stopover in New York and a short stop in Atlanta. In New York we spent a nice evening in which we wandered for Manhattan and climbed at the top of the Rockfeller Center. The next morning, before taking the flight, we had time to enjoy a spectacular snowfall that whitewashed the big apple.

And it was raining like apples when the same evening we landed in Panama, a country in which the dry season goes from mid-December to April. A taxi took us to the hotel. The hotel was very elegant and cost relatively little ... and the idea for the holiday was that, little expense and a lot of yield.
The next morning, at 6, a driver was waiting for us in front of the hotel entrance for Bring us in the Guna Yala archipelago, Alias San Blas, in the Caribbean Sea , first goal of our Panamanian travel itinerary. It was a day trip booked by Italy and turned out to be a great idea, although learning to what we would have seen and experienced later on our own.

We crossed mountain steps and rainforests, until you reach the starting point for the archipelago. Here we mounted on a berched boat and sampled between mangrove channels. The first stage of the journey was a lodged island from the Guna and therefore invaded by low wooden huts. It was a very interesting and characteristic visit.

We resumed the sea and after half an hour we found ourselves surrounded by sandy islets covered with palm trees. We stopped in a particularly heavenly sea area, from the bottom of the backdrop, where we plunged to discover numerous marine, harsh, large and colorful stars. The day continued with other boat laps, a couple of beautiful beaches, snorkeling on an old wreck populated by colored fish and a simple lunch under palm trees.

The next day the sun reappeared, which did not abandon us almost as much as we expected from the dry season. We returned to the airport to pick up the rental car booked by Italy, a Subaru Station Wagon 4x4, ideal for a travel itinerary in Panama between jungles and beaches. We were ready to face any danger ... not that we expected so many, from Panama, but in doubt we were ready.
We left west, without precise programs, beautiful convinced. First of all they made a fine for excess speed. The policeman told us that there were long bureaucratic procedures to pay the fine, so we corrupted it with 30 euros and continued happy.

Driving the streets of Panama, for the rest, it was a pleasure: little traffic and relaxing views when they were not amazing. We dedicated that first day to discover the jungle and some fascinating waterfall near the Anton Valley . We crossed characteristic and rather spoiled towns. Sleeping in a good hotel in a quadruple costed on 10 euros each.
The day after our travel itinerary in Panama took us to the splendid Santa Catalina, on the Pacific Ocean. We thought was a tourist place, but tourists were actually 10 or 11 we included. There were spectacular beaches, fishing boats and palm trees on the sea.

We slept in a breaked bungalow, but in a splendid position, spending 16 euros for a double. We did surf and explore unforgettable bays. Santa Catalina is an unmissable destination in every travel itinerary in Panama.

We reached and we would reach Boca Chica , a beautiful stretch of coast in front of which the island of Boca Brava stood, completely uninhabited apart from a hotel. A Panamanian was offering to take you by boat on the island. From good Genoese, we contracted on the price even though it was already a lot low.
Boca Brava was a tropical island as you should: hills covered with rainforest, monkeys and beaches . The landscapes were sublime as well as quiet. Snorkeling, on the other hand, was poor by water surrendered to the sandy bottoms ... But this did not bother us much, we took what nature offered us with great generosity.

We greeted the monkeys and returned to Boca Chica, where we resumed the jeep. We visited a nearby bay, in my opinion very beautiful and, useless to say, unknown to tourism. We tested the capacities of the Subaru on the sand and we left.

In the evening, when it was dark, we arrived at Boquete, a popular mountain area renowned among the "Gringo" American retired : here, in fact, they can spend old age with a favorable climate and a low cost of life.
In our opinion, there are, in Panama, much more sensational places, but Boquete was the only town where we could not find a bed immediately. At the fourth attempt, and for the crazy expense of 15 euros each, we finally found a free room.
was late for dining and the restaurants were closing. We were able to munch something typical (meat, Patacones - ie slices of fried plane - and vegetables). In Boquete the nightlife was non-existent as in the rest of Panama, it seemed to us, but our vacation had other objectives.
The next day, through a mountain road between the wonderful and the fantastic, we reached the coast Caribbean Panamense and therefore the city of Almirante, which was the opposite of those landscapes: full of garbage, gray, practically unwatchable. However, it was the starting point for the Bocas del Toro archipelago , a necessary destination in every travel itinerary in Panama who is respected.

Arrived in Almirante, an elderly bike guided us to the passenger board for Bocas del Toro. He made us park in a cheap private parking, where we would leave the car for two days, and accompanied us to the marina, gaining a tip.
Just climbed to the boat, charge of people and luggage, the smelly atmosphere of Almirante changed . Viewed from that sea channel, the barracks in the vegetation had their charm.
Bocas is an archipelago composed of numerous Caribbean islands, some beautiful and others wonderful , a destination generally inserted in All travel itineraries in Panama. The main city, Bocas del Toro, tastes of vacation: it is full of restaurants and hotels for all tastes, especially cheap, and is located on Isla Colon. The other islands are almost uninhabited.
Arrived in Bocas Town we had a short tour for the town and chose a random hotel. At three in the afternoon we were ready for a first visit of the archipelago. Incertain to do, at the end a taxi-boat took us to the Isla Bastimientos . We arrived in fifteen minutes to a marina at whose shoulders there were only mangroves. A great start! From the pier we reached a path that led to the spectacular Red Frog Beach. We had to pay a couple of euro input, but they were nothing compared to those landscapes.

Walking along the beach, we found ourselves alone I Caribbean paradise, made of white sand, palms on the water, awesome vegetation, lush islets and ... really, the photos speak for itself. There was no human sign (a resort was in the center of the island, but he was fortunately invisible due to vegetation). There was nobody. I emphasize it not because they are misanthropic, but because immersion in nature intoxicates such as anything else. One of the most exciting moments of the trip.
At the sunset returned with Taxi-Boat to Bocas Town. A good lobster dinner cost us over 10 euros each.
During the night the rain becomes incessant on the island, but the morning after the sky cleared. We left for a boat trip that took us to see mangroves, dolphins and, finally, the splendid Cayo Zapatilla , a white sand, palm trees and vegetation. Here too, you could set yourself up on the first beach or walk along the entire place of the island, as we did. Certainly the right move, the views were exciting. Bocas was a tourist archipelago for Panamansi standards, but it was enough to walk for two hundred meters and there was no one around. And it was the Christmas holidays!

The next day we took the bus, which was an experience: the bus, in fact, started only when it was full, and the filling work was carried out by a boy who ran from one side to another by calling customers and inventing times Departure then inevitably not respected. In the end the mini bus moved and, for a dollar, we would leave us at "La Gruta" , the cave, an original destination for an itinerary in Bocas del Toro.
we descended from the bus and We ventured on a path. The indications were to say the least scarce. A lady with two children and two hens asked us an offer to enter the cave . We left a dollar each and brought "underground".

The grut was full of bats: we walked with water up to the knee, in the dark, between rocks and flying mice, then suddenly we went out in the forest.
We continued in the jungle along the stream, surrounded by flies and mosquitoes, taking All the forms of dengue and malaria imaginable possible, so we arrived to another cave. It was one of the wildest moments of the travel itinerary in Panama.
In the early afternoon we took the boat to Almirante, where incredibly we found the Subaru Sana and Save. We were driving and, among always wonderful landscapes, we returned to the Pacific coast, at Las Lajas, an infinite sandy expanse. I slept in an ocean resort, a luxurious place with swimming pool, garden garden, and all these amenities we paid deeply (twenty euros each) .

After an amazing sunset, we spend the evening listening to the ocean and looking at the stars.
The next day we headed to the Hotel Heliconia, who organized a three-day excursion to Isla Coiba : We had booked from Italy before leaving, both the hotel and the trip.
Hotel Heliconia is run by two Dutch and is located on the west coast of the de Azuero peninsula. To reach it passed through the "usual" luxuriant landscapes to which cultivated fields and colored houses alternated. Apart from the Christmas lunch (it was December 25th) in a self-service messy for truck drivers (which had its charm, however), it was all wonderful. To add additional "idyllicity" to the Idyllic views, every now and then we saw a blue sea, but so blue that looked blue .

We ventured on dirt streets looking for some characteristic outlet on the sea. We found peasants and children playing in a stream, then, at the end of another dirt road finally got access to the sea. We ventured with 4x4 along the beach, on a kind of dune, and then, in a moment of unconsciousness, drove down from the dune to the sea. It was all spectacular, yes, but at the time of tracing remained inapped. I knew that during our travel itinerary eventually I would have combined some casinos, with the jeep in his hands.

We deflated the tires to have more floating surface on the sand, enjoying the wild view, until finally managed to go back up. We arrived at the hotel, very nice in a lush vegetation, servmed and went to sleep.
The next day the boat trip started. We were four, a Californian couple, a panamense owner of the barchetta, son of him, and our hotel guide, a true landfinder, lover of plants, birds, fish and animals in general.

Isla Coiba is a natural, uninhabited paradise, where there are some simple bungalows obtained from the structures of an abandoned prison. After the long navigation we settled in the premises. The guide told us that there was plenty more people than usual. Mah, there will have been 20 people and we had an entire island more all the surrounding sea. And it was December 26th. Panama continued to amaze us, much more banal places were assaulted by hordes of tourists and instead there ... only us. Or almost.
The beach overlooked the bungalows was amazing, the one just behind also, but was inhabited by a crocodile, named Tito , and therefore was not frequented.
I Three days and two nights that we spent on the island were the most beautiful in the holiday. We walked in the jungle, among the monkeys, we explored with the "aquatic" forests of mangroves with the colorful parrot and birds, we saw a pair of crocodiles and, above all, we were snorkeling in the richest waters that can be dreamed of.

The best places for snorkeling were the small islets that surrounded Isla Coiba, already fascinating. For example, the "granite de gold" had a diameter of no more than two hundred meters, yet offered a splendid golden beach, palm trees and lush trees, round rocks and hundreds of foods .

Swimming along all the vaniplo of the isolotto we saw thousands of colorful fish, branches of barracuda, murnes, sharks and long turtles a meter : every species had its favorite place. The sharks were harmless for the man (so there had been sworn, at least), they were up to a couple of meters long and were quiet at the bottom. Swimming in the Pacific Ocean along with a giant tortoise, for a couple of minutes, was instead one of the most idyllic experiences of my life. That absolute dominion of nature was a bit disturbing, but also exhilarating.

We still felt safe: only once, snorkeling at sunset, when the predators start to hunt and I found myself swimming at a meter and a half away from two sharks and a long murea almost as much as me ... here I thought Which was better to return to the beach!

In the evening, in Isla Coiba, he spent Serena. The guide prepared dinner (there were no bars or restaurants, of course, only a shared kitchen for the bungalows) and then lie on hammocks hanging between the palm trees, watching the stars and the reflection of the moon on the sea .

At the end of those three amazing days (perhaps the most exciting of our Panamanian travel itinerary) we returned to the Hotel Heliconia, where we relaxed and slept in view of the next start. The next day, in fact, I drove to Panama City, stopping at some panoramic point, but with the spirit unfortunately, it is at the end of the holiday. We visited the closed of the celebrity Panama Channel .

Then we stopped to sleep in a hotel on the afield of Amador, from where you enjoyed a beautiful view of the city. A good dinner based on meat and patacons and a good sleep. The next morning, at dawn, we drove to the airport, we left the subaru and returned to Italy.

Panama, its tropical skies, the sea, the fish, the luxuriant landscapes, the peace and freedom of those places were in our hearts and a little even in cameras ... but it was not enough. We will come back soon. Or, as a minimum, we will write an unnecessary travel diary. Ehm ... if you like these wild trips or if you want to find more photos of this and other destinations, as well as advice and new routes, visit our FB page and put like: