Panama - State Magazine — The Panama City skyline from Casco Viejo

At the end of our whirlwind year of travel in 2025, we snuck in two more countries over Thanksgiving: Panama and Colombia. Thanks to non-stop flights on COPA from Boston to Panama City, it’s an easy 6-hour flight to get to the most southern country in Central America. While we didn’t have time for many of Panama’s must-do’s (the Panama Canal, San Blas Islands, Bocas de Toro, Coiba), the quick day and a half we spent in the city was enough to get us hooked and excited to come back soon.

Jump to:

Thursday

We land at PTY around 9pm and grab a $15 cab into the city. For our first night, we’re in a hostel (bucket list item✅) in the San Francisco neighborhood, which is packed with restaurants and bars. We head to Amano Bar, recognized as on the 50 Best Bars, for a couple well-crafted cocktails and some late-night bites like crispy tuna and gyoza. Other spots in this neighborhood that I had saved to check out but didn’t have time included La Tapa del Coco, La Pulperia, and FIKA Coffee & Brunch.

Fast Forward to Sunday

After waking up Friday at 5 AM and grabbing a flight to San Andres, Colombia for the next two days, we were back in Panama City bright and early on Sunday morning. This time around, we Uber to Casco Viejo, aka the “old city” slash more touristy part of the city. Maybe it was traveler fatigue from that first night in the hostel plus the lack of hot water in our San Andres hotel… but by the time we rolled into the Sofitel Legend hotel in Casco Viejo and they served us champagne during check-in, I was ready to turn in my traveler card and just be a (very lazy) tourist for the next 24 hours. We scrapped our plans to check out the Panama Canal (now we have an excuse to come back!) and decided to take advantage of the nice hotel and get to know the Casco Viejo neighborhood.

The Sofitel Legend hotel in Casco Viejo, Panama City

After our early champagne-soaked check-in, we grabbed lunch at one of the hotel’s restaurants – Caleta.

The vacation officially starts (on our final day) with lunch at Caleta at the Sofitel Legend Casco Viejo

We then walked around Casco Viejo, which is packed with colorful colonial buildings and storefronts, and has major skyline views of the rest of the city. We ended up getting caught up in a parade of traditional dancers, too.

After a wander around Casco Viejo, a quick coffee and change back at the hotel, we walked to our dinner reservation at Fonda La Que Hay. A cheeky and modern take on traditional food and ingredients found in Panama, this was a major culinary highlight of the weekend. The cocktails hit just right, the vibes were good and every dish we ordered (and some we were served but didn’t order – score!) were delicious as well.