I finally got to experience a new country outside of staying at a resort! I 100% recommend experiencing countries (and even cities in the US) outside of the tourist areas. Thats the only way to truly experience a new place.
For my 27th birthday I originally wanted to go to Costa Rica, but since everything is crazy expensive, after changing the trip a million times we chose Panama’.
Not really sure about what there was to do in Panama’ I started watching vlogs, googling different things and talking to some friends who had traveled there before. I found a lot of high rated restaurants, nice hotels, and some nice excursions. Some days switched around, but here is the itinerary that I created.
Now for my Panama’ City review….. IT WAS AMAZING! It is a very beautiful city with very friendly people. I will say this isnt a huge party city, but it was exactly the trip I needed. The city is way more developed than I thought. We stayed at the W Panama’ which had about 50 floors and was in the middle of downtown. Majority of the restaurants had 4+ stars in ratings so it was hard to choose, but every restaurant we ate at was really good and you could tell the food and drinks were fresh. My top restaurant recommendation was El Caribe for a Afro Caribbean feel, Which is black owned (Because I always try to support as many as I can). I recommend trying some of the fruit juices too!
For a night out in the town we booked a bar crawl excursion and our travel guide took us to about 6 different bars in Casco Viejo. Casco Viejo is the old Panama City, so there’s a lot of history within that area. Its been built up, so it is a cute, “New Orleansy”, upscale vibe. This is an area a few bloggers recommended staying and just from research they have some really cute Airbnb’s there.
My top recommendations when visiting Panama’ City are to book an excursion or two. We booked Toboga Island and Monkey Island. Panama’ City isn’t really a beach town, which is one of the reasons I was hesitant about the city for a birthday trip. However, there are a few islands surrounding the country that you can have both a boat day and a beach day.
Overall, I definitely recommend Panama’ City for a fun, adventurous, new cultured experience. Check out my Tik Tik for a short clip of our trip.
What other “less touristy” cities would you recommend visiting?