Panama City, Panama, Not Florida

I’ve been looking at San Blas for a decade now. Never worked out. Ran into some Australians on a trek in Colombia last year that did 10 days island hopping and it’s moved up. They had nothing but great things to say.

Looking at the hotels, looks like the old town has some really cool properties, historic, renovated, but small. Small pools, which can be little fun for kids.

The newer stuff in the downtown area is actually way cheaper. Just don’t know much about the areas other than old towns are usually most walkable.

Have you any food recs to pass along?

Most of those places don’t look too crazy. I eat well, don’t mind paying for quality food.

I go quite often and stay at the Intercontinental Miramar downtown. The city is massive. Walk to Gaucho’s and eat a great steak. Hacienda Real is close also for another great meal, but Gaucho’s is my spot. Walk around Casco Viejo, “old town”, for some beautiful buildings rich with history. Enjoy

It’s probably a 20-30 minute walk or so, but I just catch a cab. Cab also to Miraflores Locks to check out the Panama Canal. They also have the Albrook Mall which is one of the larger malls in the world.

Looks like the French Quarter, no? I've never been anywhere where the architecture reminded me more of the FQ, and that's because Panama City was burned to the ground by the pirate Henry Morgan (yes, that Captain Morgan) in 1670, so the Casco Antiguo was rebuilt along a similar timeline as the FQ. It's well worth some time exploring, and I'd definitely recommend that you find a hotel there, but most of the city's hotels are in the financial district with all of the modern skyscrapers.

Of course you should take your kids to the Canal and watch the ships move in the locks and see the museum there. I was there 10 years ago, so the logistics of that may have changed, but it's a cool experience.

The other thing that I really recommend is to get into the rainforest. My understanding is that you can see quite a lot from the trails in the huge park that's actually in the city limits, Metropolitan National Park, but I was really glad that I took the short 40-minute drive to Sobernia National Park and hiked along Plantation Trail. I saw a large group of monkeys, toucans, coatis, mot-mots, and stunning blue morpho butterflies.

Panama was great. We had a 2 bedroom condo in Casco Viejo 2 nights, then did the San Blas Sailing tour for 5 nights.

Hit the Canal and Monkey islands. Very cool for the kids. San Blas was out of this world. Food in Casco Viejo was really good. International city, tons of great options. Kids loved it. Never had any issues of any kind. Would recommend.

We stumbled on this place for dinner 1 night. Modern Italian, chef from Venice came out and sat with us for half the dinner. Afrodisiaco

Hit Kaandela the next night and sat at the chefs table at the bar. Kids loved it. Outstanding food. https://kaandela.com/reservations/

Fonda Lo Que Hay
In Casco Viejo, one of my favorite restaurants anywhere.