Panama City, Panama, January 2026

At the onset of the year, I thought I would try to take more long weekend trips abroad. Previously, I did a solo trip to Bogota, Colombia that was a long weekend and was pretty quick but highly enjoyable. With the goal of doing more shorter trips, I saw a cheap flight to Panama City on Copa Airlines that I jumped on. I was thinking I may do another solo trip, but a few weeks later, I mentioned it to some friends and they seemed interested in going too. So we made it a trio.

Getting into Panama City

We took off mid afternoon on a direct flight. I usually get in to the airport for a flight with about ninety minutes or so before the scheduled wheels up time. For international flights, I aim for two hours, which was about what we did for this flight. The airport was the busiest that I think I have ever seen it, outside of a trip through Denver international Airport.

I got through the TSA Pre line quickly and waited maybe thirty to forty-five minutes from the time I got in line to being done with the baggage scan. My friend, who didn’t have TSA Pre got to the gate midway through boarding. I noticed this because I had had some issues boarding with the need for a gate agent to verify my passport.

The flight was just under five hours. We got through Panamanian border check pretty quickly and without issue.

We got a ride to where we were staying and met up with the host and let in. He was cool enough to show up with the better part of a twelve pack of Balboa beers for us and to warn us that Saturday the water would be off for about twelve hours. For the whole country of Panama.

Esa Flaca Rica

We stayed in the San Francisco neighborhood and were a bit late getting out and trying to find dinner. We picked a place called Esa Flaca Rica.

It is a burger joint with a bunch of outdoor seating and a variety of beers and burgers. It was decent. None of us were overly impressed and had it not been both kind of late and the first place to eat that we found open near us with decent ratings, we probably would have skipped it.

After eating, we walked around a bit and explored the neighborhood some. There were a few restaurants that had outdoor seating and were fairly busy.

Friday - First Day

Cooking Momma

The first thing we did in the morning was to sus out some coffee and breakfast. Cooking Momma was the pick. It’s a little breakfast / coffeehouse that blew the other spots we would have breakfast at out of the water. I got a cheese toast on bread that was sort of a toasted croissant in the shape of a disc. It was easily the best breakfast sandwich I have ever had. I got a limonada that was ginger and lime that was good too.

Miraflores and the Panama Canal

After breakfast, we grabbed a ride out to Miraflores to see the Panama Canal. It was pretty busy with a lot of tour buses and school buses in the parking lot. We paid a bit under twenty bucks to get access and that included a ticket to see an iMax movie about the canal.

We got in and there were not any boats going through the canal for the next four hours. So, we walked around and got to the viewing area overlooking the canal. To be honest, it was pretty unimpressive. We sat for a bit and chit chatted about the scale of it all, but it was a bit boring to see.

Talking to a friend, I think it was wildly more impressive to know about than to actually see. Kind of in the same vein as the Hoover Dam is to me. I understand the effort that went into building it and how vital it is, it’s just kind of not overly interesting to look at to me. It’s a modern marvel, but no where near as captivating as ancient marvels.

We didn’t bother with the iMax movie as the queue for it was far too long for the level of patience we had. It was giant and in the way of everything. It was also in an area that was hot, so we looked for something else to do.

MAC Panama

That something else would be going to the Museum of Modern Art, or MAC Panama. It’s a small art museum that had two exhibits. One that was about water and people that I didn’t really get or care too much for. The other was a bunch of work around women that I did like.

The best part of the museum to me though was the room full of zines. It was all in Spanish, but flipping through the zines was cool to see. It reminded me a bit of old punk rock shows and various people’s art projects growing up.

La Pulperia

We found a restaurant that was a 4.9 rating with around three thousand ratings. That was far and away the most I have ever seen for any place, so we decided to get lunch there. The restaurant was fairly close to where we stayed and called La Pulperia. It has a cool design in the restaurant and it’s logo is themed around an octopus and a deep sea dive helmet.

We had some beers and two of us ordered what may be the messiest shrimp I have ever had. The shrimp were pretty large peel and eat shrimp but covered in a mayo that while delicious, got all over your hands.

After the bill showed up and we paid, the waiter looked at the amount on the tip and then prompted us to review them. That was how they had so many good reviews, they waited to the end of the meal, saw that we were happy and sort of loomed over us until one of us gave them a good review.

Dinner and Drinks

For dinner, we found a steak house near us called Tomillo. It was kind of fancy but not somewhere we felt out of place in t-shirts. I got a roast beef and rice dish that was akin to a paella, but without sea food. I liked it a lot and it was probably the best meal all weekend, with plenty of leftovers to snack on for the rest of the trip.

After, we went to a pub / brewery called La Rana Dorado. It was a couple blocks from where we were staying. La Rana Dorado is a brewery that has a few locations throughout Panama City and sells mostly beer that they brewed. We had a few pitchers and nachos. The nachos didn’t have cheese and instead had a weird aioli. Other than the weird replacement of cheese, they were pretty good. Not as good as the beer though.

Saturday - Second Day

For our second full day in Panama City, we awoke to the forewarned lack of water. The whole country had a twelve hour period in which the water was going to be off. Everyone we mentioned this to the previous day had said it was more likely to be twenty hours. So, that was a thing.

Pasteleria Venecia

We kicked off the day by going to a bakery called Pasteleria Venecia. It was kind of busy and when they realized that we were going to stumble through our poor Spanish in ordering, they ushered us to a table and took our order there. I got a forgettable chocolate croissant, but the service was good and a lot of the other stuff looked really good.

Amador Causeway

After eating, we took a ride out to where Fort Grant had been and to the Amador Causeway. It is a walkway that connects a few small islands and showcases the city skyline. It’s got a cruise port on one island and a bunch of touristy shops, bars, and restaurants on the causeway. The weather wasn’t too bad and there was a nice breeze as we walked. The cause way was kind of cool to see, but nothing really stood out.

There, we did duck into a bar called Praia Amador. We had a couple rounds of Balboa beer and some bottled waters. The place was sparsely populated and had a pool in the middle of it. The seating was a lot of outdoorsy furniture. The most memorable thing was the onslaught of bad beach music including a cover of Pink Floyd’s “Wish You Were Here” done in a reggae style that was the catalyst for us deciding to start walking again.

After a bit more of walking where we checked out the skyline some, we grabbed a ride and took off back to where we were staying for a bit.

Old Town

We left the casa and waited out a ride to Old Town in a bunch of traffic. Old Town itself was a mix of both falling apart and refurbished historic buildings. We got in and ducked into Casa Sucre Coffeehouse for a quick espresso. I didn’t really have anything, but the place seemed pretty cool and had a piano from the 1800’s that was open to play, but only if you knew something to play and weren’t just mashing keys on it. I thought about mashing keys anway, but skipped doing so.

We walked over to Plaza Mayor where we heard what turned out to be a band playing music for a greeting line for a wedding. That was pretty neat to see.

The plaza was pretty standard and small. We walked around the area some and checked out Old Town a bit more. There was a lot of old buildings that were pretty run down and we checked them out as much as we could.

We decided on dinner and went to La Cosana. It sucked. The food wasn’t great and when a busker went table to table asking to play for guests for a dollar, a friend thought it would be amusing to pay and tell him that my other friend was super excited to hear a Panamanian guitarist live. This set off the creepiest rendition of “Hotel California” I have ever heard. The singer had a weird lisp and just stared at my friend the entire time he sang to him. It was wildly uncomfortable and I didn’t know if he was going to murder us all or declare an undying love for my friend.

Walking Along the Coast

After dinner, we walked out of Old Town and along the coast line. There are a ton of spots along the coast where people were playing tennis or soccer or basketball. There are also a bunch of playgrounds and workout areas. The whole walkway was littered with people vending food, drinks, and a bunch of other stuff. It was worth taking a stroll through.

We stopped in a Fish Market and grabbed a few more beers at a place called El Bote Pty. There were a lot of people in the market at other tables eating from the various stalls. There was also a guy singing and walking around for tips that was far better than the creepiest guitarist ever. We did not ask him to play anything for any of us.

We walked back toward were we were staying after a while and checked out the city a bit more. When we got back, the water was still off and was a few hours late from the scheduled twelve hour outage.

Sunday - Third Day

Bungla Coffee House

The last full day we were we awoke to find the water was back on. The pressure sucked and the water wasn’t hot, but it was water. We started off walking a mile or so through the city and going to a coffee house called Bungla Coffee House. It was decent.

We walked around a bit more that morning and checked out the huge buildings of Panama City. For me, the most impressive thing about Panama City was the giant number of huge skyscrapers. There were a ton of them in varying designs. I took a bunch of pictures of the ones I liked.

While walking, we stumbled upon a basketball game that was going on. We sat a bit and watched a pretty uneven game between two teams of mixed ages before watching a 50+ league game. Everyone had their own matching uniforms and while the basketball was kind of bad, it was cool to watch and see people doing something they obviously enjoyed.

After a bit, we started walking around again. Eventually, we went into the Hilton Casino for a bit. There, I turned twenty dollars into twenty-eight dollars. So fierce. We walked back to where we were staying from there.

Onde El Gringo and La Rana Dorada

Early in the trip, we saw a place called Onde El Gringo and spent our time in Panama teasing each other about going there. It said it was Texas BBQ and we were sort of bored, hungry, and curious to see how it compared to the BBQ in Austin.

We got in, ordered some brisket, sausage, ribs, creamed corn, and a potato salad. Basically, we did it for science and to be able to tell people back home about it, but the place was way better than expected. The sausage was dry and bad. The ribs were good but over cooked on the outside. The brisket was actually fairly good and the highlight of the meal. The sides were passable and we agreed the place was a C+ overall.

After, we went back to La Rana Dorada for some beers and wait out a couple of hours before setting off for a sunset cruise. At La Rana, we met a British expat who had been in Panama for ten years. He said he was living on a $1200/month pension and doing well for himself. I’m not sure how that works or if I’d want to spend a bunch of time in Panama City, but it had us talking about finding a place like he did and where we would want to live.

Sunset Cruise

Earlier in the day, we debated what to do and settled on a sunset cruise around Panama Bay. Settled was the right word as none of us were really excited about doing much else and couldn’t think of anything else to do. As such, we didn’t really have great expectations for it, but it turned out probably the most fun thing we did on the trip.

The boat was a catamaran called Manga and it was about a three hour tour for around seventy dollars a person. We headed back to Amador Causeway and boarded the boat there. At Amador Causeway, we saw a bunch of boats moored in the bay and ventured out on the Manga.

The skyline was impressive from the water and watching the shift between day and night led to some cool sights. The boat had an open bar and sitting on the netting at the front of the catamaran. Drinking beer in the breeze was the trip highlight. The sky was a bit overcast, so we didn’t really get to see the sunset, but it was still worth the trip.

When we got back, Amador Causeway was packed. I don’t know if that is an evening thing or if it was just dumb luck from when were there, but it was a shit ton of people. We got back and settled in for a fairly early morning flight.

Monday - Last Day

Monday was an early morning wake up and ride to the airport. I never quite know what to expect at airports in places I have never been to before. We wound up leaving two and half hours before our flight and eating about twenty-five minutes of that on the ride. The airport in Panama City was pretty fast. The line through customs / border check was maybe a twenty minute wait. It led to a bag check that was another ten minute wait or so.

We flew Copa Airlines and our tickets said Terminal 2 but that was for the Copa Airlines baggage drop. We got to Terminal 2 only to find that we really needed to be in the other terminal. We didn’t have anything other than our carry on stuff, so we trekked a bit to Terminal 1. We stopped and ate some forgettable food on the way and killed another thirty minutes or so.

We got to our gate just as it was starting to get ready to board the first group. We had to go through an additional bag / metal detector screen to get into the gate’s waiting area. It was quick though and there weren’t any issues with boarding.

Overall Thoughts

Overall, I had fun in Panama City. It was not the most exciting trip or place that I have been, but it was a good trip. The Panama Canal was a bit of a letdown in person, but still blows me away in all that they were able to do in its creation. Surprisingly, the most impressive thing about Panama City was the large number of skyscrapers and the skyline. The sunset cruise was well worth it and I would do it again. I do not think I would make a large effort to back to Panama City, but I certainly wouldn’t avoid it.