Best Things To Do in Panama City, Panama 2024

What's going on everybody, this is Island Hopper TV and today we're going to talk about the best things to do when visiting Panama City. Let's do it. That's right everybody, we've got 20 things to do in Panama City, Panama. We're going to show you some things to do inside the actual city and then we're going to show you some places you can go on tour that are going to be within a few hours drive. So from the Pacific Ocean side of Panama, let's go. Now here we are in Casco Vieja, which is actually the old town of Panama City. It's a very nice area to walk around, especially at night. Commonly called Casco, which translates to hard helmet in English, this area right here is popular with locals and tourists, especially in the evening time, considered one of the best areas for nightlife. While here you can do some shopping, check out the cafes, bars, restaurants, but something that's really popular here is rooftop bars, restaurants, dining, especially at sunset. You'll also find many cultural activities going on here. I do recommend arriving in the evening time because Panama City in the daytime can get hot and humid. Also if you wanted to get around on one of these GoPed scooters, that's a great way to get around. Now we're going to do a tour out to Sand Blast. Now you need a 4x4 to get out here. On the Caribbean side it is a 3-4 hour drive. Now we're at Bocas del Toro. This is actually another set of islands in the north part of Panama. On the Caribbean side you can fly here and it takes about an hour. And another popular thing to do while in Panama City is visit with the indigenous people in the outlying areas or even inside the city. It's $20 each way and takes an hour. Another popular thing to do is head over to the other side of the canal. This here is Colón and right next to it is San Lorenzo, a popular place to visit. It is an hour and 15 minutes away from Panama City. Now we're on Avenida Balboa. This is the main thoroughfare going through the financial center of Panama City. You'll see many high-rises right along here and it bumps up next to the coast. Now here we are at the Causeway. It's actually called the Amador Causeway out here. This is where the cruise ships arrive. They have only two hotels out here in case you're trying to stay out here. But many people come out here for the restaurants. They have Bucaneros and several other restaurants around here. Really a nice area, very safe over here. If you wanted to rent a bike and ride it around, this is where you'd probably want to go just because of the views looking out on both sides of the Causeway. Also if you're trying to catch a ferry boat to some of the neighboring islands in the Pacific, this is where you'll find those ferry boats. I would suggest coming out here for the sunsets or just before and then from there you can head to Costco Viejo. Now here we are at the Bio Museo on the Causeway. For those of you who want to learn more about Panama, check this place out. They've got a lot of natural history of Panama, the Isthmus, how it was formed, learning about the geology here. It is $20 for adults who are non-residents and $12 for kids. And the building itself is really an architectural marvel. It really stands out right here on the Amador. Also just a reminder, we do have time stamps below so you can bounce around from location to location as we continue to show you around Panama City. And if you are enjoying this video so far, please consider liking the video and subscribing to the channel. Also watching some more of our videos from Latin America. Yeah and here we are now at the Panama Canal. You can see one of the ships actually going through a lock at Miraflores right here outside of Panama City. Now here at Miraflores, they do have an IMAX theater where Morgan Freeman narrates a documentary telling you all about the development of the Panama Canal for the last 100 years and it is an hour long. But a brief history is the French originally tried to dig a trench across the Isthmus. 20,000 men died so they failed. United States under Teddy Roosevelt took over and the engineers from the United States built a lock system which is still in operation today. Basically they run the largest water management project in the world. Takes 11 hours to get the ships to go through the canal from Cologne to Panama City. While in Panama, be sure to try some empanadas. They've also got yucca which is like a root. So many different foods. Lots of ceviche. I had plenty of ceviche while I was here. They've also got international cuisine. You'll see Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Mexican foods, Italian food. Lots of variety here in Panama City. Now let's talk about some of the nightlife. You can see the salsa club here, El Tropicana. This is at the Hilton. But if you go to Costco Viejo, that's really the main area for the nightlife. My experience with the nightlife here is lots of dancing, lots of Latino style. You're also going to get some of that Dominican reggaeton music. So really get ready to go out and party. So do be sure to bring some nice clothes. Now here we have casinos. Many of the hotels like Sortes, Hilton, even JW Marriott nearby there, they have some casinos. There's plenty of them going around Hard Rock area. So hanging out at the casino is definitely something to do. Now here we are at Mercado Mariscos, the fish market. Now we already touched on food, but in particular the Mercado Mariscos at nighttime is another popular place. People like to go. I think they have around 27 different restaurants. Also, you'll see a variety of different seafoods. You go inside, you can even order the fresh fish, have them cook it at the restaurant, whatever you buy inside the market. But you can see, here's a variety of the seafood dishes that they cook up. You'll notice that fishing out here in the Pacific is very common and popular. And fishermen go out at night, and this is usually their hall. They bring it in here to the market. Like I said, it's a really popular place for people who are locals and tourists to go. But if you're looking for some fresh fish, this is where it's gonna be found, right here. So much variety in seafood. Now at the Gamboa Rainforest, this is actually where Monkey Island is. You actually get a boat, a barco, and you go out to Isla Mono, which is Monkey Island in Spanish. Depending on how many people are gonna be on your boat, the price is gonna vary. But for a boat like this with just me and the tour guides, it was like $75. And we were out on the water for about two hours. Make sure you bring some sunscreen. But also, you're gonna be going in and out of the canal. So you go through the canal where the big ships are, and then you go off into these tributaries. The best time to see the monkeys is in the morning, because in the afternoon they've already been fed very well by all the other tour boats. But you can see they've got three different types of monkeys here. They've got a small piquito, or a pequeno monkey. They've got a medium-sized monkey, and then they got the big howler monkeys. Typically, you'll see the small pequeno monkey and the medium-sized monkey coming right up to you. Just keep in mind, these are wild animals. So if you do decide to actually feed them out of your hand, keep in mind monkeys are wild animals and they can be unpredictable. So it does come with some sort of risk. Also, while you're out here, you'll see lots of different birds. It's possible to see toucans even while you're out here. We saw some, but they were kind of tucked away in the trees. Also saw some crocodiles or alligators. I'm not sure exactly what it was, but it was a small caiman. I also saw a few turtles while I was out here, but mostly it's going to be monkeys because after all, it's called Monkey Island. Yeah, so here we are at Parque Metropolitan. This is a natural park right here in the middle of the city. Let's go take a look at what kind of natural biodiversity they have in here. Now, the admission cost is $5 for foreigners, but $2.50 for local adults. If you go inside here, you never know what you might see. Plenty of wildlife. It is kind of in the city, but it's also not. Definitely walking around here, you feel like you're in a jungle for sure. Lots of hiking trails winding all through here. You could probably spend half a day or a full day walking through here and not see it all. I did see a capybara. That's the only animal that I really saw here along with some birds. Yeah, so after a 20-minute walk inside the Metropolitan Park, you come up to a mirador, which is a nice lookout point overlooking the city here, and you can see a beautiful view. It's like a frame inside the jungle just looking out towards the city. Really beautiful 20-minute walk. By the way, it costs $4 to get in here. It was $4 because I showed up late in the afternoon. Here we are now at the Albrook Mall. This is actually the largest mall in all of Latin America. So let me show you around here. Ah, wait, let me correct myself here. It's actually the largest mall in Central America. So the Albrook Mall has a really large food court. Also, it's right next to the Albrook Airport. For those of you who want to go to Bocas del Toro, that's a better airport for domestic flights than going through Tacomen, which is the main airport for international arrivals. But while you're here at the mall, they're going to have many different designer clothing stores, also a variety of electronic shops. So if you need to do some shopping, this one is one of the good malls, although there are many different malls in Panama City. It is about a 15-minute drive from the Financial District. Depending on traffic, it can be more or less. There is also a very large Marriott Hotel that's attached to the mall. For those of you who want to stay in this area, you will save a little bit of money and you'll be close to this large mall. If you look right behind me here, you can see some of the ruins of the old Panama Vieja. Now, Panama Vieja is actually interesting because this is the oldest European settlement on the Pacific Ocean side of Latin America, dating all the way back to the years 1540 to 1550. So interesting, right? And a little bit of a correction here. They actually settled the area around 1510, so it's even older than 1540. It was an affluent area. For those of you who know about Captain Morgan, he was actually known for raiding and sacking this Panama Vieja, I think around the year 1600s. So this was a popular place, really important because of its position along the Isthmid. Original settlers here to Panama Vieja, they actually encountered quite a lot of problems when they first got here because there was a lot of flooding. And if you look right over here, you can see an estuary and the water comes right up here. It's actually mud right behind there. So water levels here in Panama are an issue. And earlier I talked about the bio museum, but I felt like I learned a ton about Panama and the history of Panama City right here at this Panama Vieja. It's an old ruins area. Some of the old structures are still kind of in place. They're also rebuilding some of it. But when you actually go inside the museum here, it is air conditioning and it's a nice retreat from the heat walking around the old structures. In Panama, there are around 10 different provinces and some of them include Bocas del Toro, Chiriqui, Cocol, Colón, the Darien, which is in the South. It's a very thick rainforest. You have Herrera, Los Santos, Panama, which is where Panama City is, Panama Oeste and Veraguas. But I must say walking around Panama Vieja here, I was very impressed with how the Spanish found these areas so long ago, how much exploration went into it. Now let's talk about one of the best ways to see the city. It's going to be one of these city bus tours. They're called City Sightseeing Panama. You can book online or you can book at your hotel. It is a hop-on hop-off bus and it costs $30 for adults, $20 for children. It also includes a $10 walking tour of the Panama Canal Museum and Cosco Viejo. So really a great value and perfect for first-timers. Now here we are at the Bridge of Americas. It does go over the area where it connects to the canal. This was also built by the United States for a cost of around $20 million and built between 1959 and 1962. It's important because it's a key part of the Pan-American Highway. Now this might not be for everybody because it's just a bridge really, but if you can try to drive over it. It's a cool bridge right here in Latin America. It's really famous. Like I said, it's part of the Pan-American Highway. So what we're going to talk about now is just some interesting information to know about visiting Panama and Panama City. Okay, let's talk about Panama City in general. So there is 1.9 million in the urban area, but if you include just Panama City, it's around 500,000. It is the largest city in Panama. In terms of safety, this is something that you should be aware of. In the banking financial district, which is where I'm staying, walking right now, where the high-rises are, the modern buildings, it's heavily policed, so it is quite safe. Once you venture outside of this into places like Cosco Viejo, you will be safe as well as long as you're in the old town at night. But if you venture outside of those areas into some of the outskirts, especially at nighttime, you may encounter a less safe environment. I just want to point that out for those of you who are coming here, so you know what to expect. When it comes to the weather walking around here, it can be a bit hot. I have experienced some sweat right now. My shirt is quite wet. It's humid. There is clouds overhead, so the sun is not beating down, but when the sun is out and the humidity, it is quite tough to bear walking around, so you will want water at all times because it can creep up on you here. But the weather right now, we're in a drought. It's about a five-month-long drought called El Nino. Wet season used to be around nine months. Now it's around seven months, so they say it's because of climate change. Things are different here than they were in the 90s. Even the Panama Canal is dealing with a little bit of problems with that. Now, when it comes to where to stay, there's about three areas. Cosco Viejo is considered the romantic area, the old town area. It's where a lot of people like to go if they're looking for more of the authentic, old colonial Panama style. Then there's the financial district, which is my favorite. That's where all the modern hotels are. And then there's Colonia Villa, which is where the metro system is really easily used or connected with, with buses and the metro. So for me, financial center works the best. All right, everybody, that's going to wrap it up from Panama City, Panama. We'll see you on the next one from Costa Rica and Ecuador.