1 destination · 10 things to do

Panama

Panama City is the only capital where you can watch a container ship climb a staircase of water before lunch and be among howler monkeys by mid-afternoon. A glass skyline rises beside the bay, a UNESCO-listed colonial quarter of balconies and plazas, Casco Viejo, sits on its own peninsula, and the Panama Canal, which opened in 1914, runs just beyond the edge of town into the rainforest of Gatun Lake. This guide books the city properly: the Miraflores Locks for the live canal show, a partial transit through the locks themselves, a Casco Viejo food walk, the Biomuseo and the ruins of the first Panama City at Panama Viejo, plus day trips to the San Blas islands, a Gatun Lake wildlife cruise, an Embera village visit and the Atlantic-side Agua Clara locks and Fort San Lorenzo. It then matches you to the right hotel, from the Waldorf Astoria on the bay to boutique stays on Plaza Herrera in Casco Viejo, because in a spread-out tropical city where you sleep decides how much of your time goes to taxis.