Everyone flies over Panama. Stay thirteen days and the canal turns out to be just the trailer.
If you go
- Don’t skip the canal, but don’t stop there either: Miraflores Locks in the morning, howler monkeys in Gamboa by noon.
- Starfish Beach is exactly what it says. Fat orange starfish in the shallows. Float around them; never pick them up.
- Save Casco Viejo for the end. After the islands, the old town reads completely differently.
- September is green season: budget for short, heavy downpours and enjoy the quieter beaches in return. Logistics are simple — Bocas is a short domestic flight from the capital, and Starfish Beach is a water taxi (or bus + boat) from Bocas town.
At a glance
| Dates | 2023-09-02 → 2023-09-14 (13 days) |
| Route | Pacific capital → Caribbean islands → back (day-by-day below) |
| Distance | ~885 km |
| Photos | 1,265 |
Glass towers and ship-watching
Panama sits narrow and green on the map, hosting the most famous shortcut on earth, and most travellers treat it as exactly that — a layover with a gift shop. The first act of the trip was the obligatory pilgrimage, and it was better than advertised: a morning at the Miraflores Locks watching container ships the size of city blocks get raised like bath toys, then up the canal road to Gamboa, where the rainforest crowds right up against the waterway and the howler monkeys drown out the ship horns.
The capital kept playing that same trick of contrast. The Metropolitan Natural Park is a chunk of legitimate tropical rainforest inside the city limits — you can faintly hear traffic behind the monkeys, which never stops being surreal. Summit Parque Municipal, a half-day out of town, added toucans and a harpy eagle to the scorecard.
Wood and water
Then a short flight north and the country quietly reset. If Panama City is glass and concrete, Bocas del Toro is wood and water — stilt houses on Isla Colón, water taxis instead of regular ones, salt in everything. By day three you’re checking tides instead of the time.
The week pinballed between islands. Red Frog Beach makes you earn the sand with a sweaty jungle walk, which is clearly part of the design. Starfish Beach became the highlight of the entire trip: shallows full of orange starfish lying around like decorations someone forgot to pick up. And the Isla Bastimentos National Marine Park was the only place that earned a second boat day. The first trip out was the survey — coral gardens, a string of snorkel stops, dolphins surfacing beside the boat on the ride home. Three days later I went back out and skipped the survey: straight back to the coral gardens. On a thirteen-day trip, a repeat visit is the strongest review I know how to give.
A third Panama
The final act returned to the capital, but to a different city: Casco Viejo, the colonial old town — bougainvillea balconies, restored facades next to honest ruins, and from Plaza de Francia a view back across the bay to the skyline, with ships queuing for the canal on the horizon. You start the trip in the glass-tower Panama, escape to the islands, and come back to find a third version waiting. Same country, three moods.
I’ll go back. Probably for the islands.
Itinerary
- Days 1–2 — Panama City · arrival + Miraflores Locks & Gamboa
- Day 3 — Metropolitan Natural Park
- Day 4 — Summit Parque Municipal
- Day 5 — fly to Bocas del Toro
- Day 6 — Red Frog Beach
- Day 7 — Starfish Beach
- Day 8 — Isla Bastimentos National Marine Park
- Days 9–10 — Bocas town, bay & beach returns
- Day 11 — Bastimentos marine park, round two
- Days 12–13 — Casco Viejo · cathedral & Plaza de Francia
Planning note: days 9–10 are deliberately slow — unscheduled island buffer days are the whole point of Bocas. But if you only have ten days, this is the stretch to trim, not the parks or the old town.
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