Panama

Casco Viejo, San Blas Islands, El Valle de Antón, Santa Catalina & Panama City

City, Countryside, Beach + Coast, and Wilderness + Safari Multi-Generational Trip December 2023
Panama

From the cobblestone streets of Casco Viejo, this route moves through the turquoise waters and Guna communities of the San Blas Islands, then flies over both oceans to the crater town of El Valle de Antón. It heads along the Pacific coast to Santa Catalina for the reefs of Coiba and finishes with a partial transit of the Panama Canal beside container ships. Five stops over eleven days, through regions distinct enough that each one feels like a different trip.

 
Behind the Route

A grandmother's wish to see somewhere new over the Christmas holidays, built around a family friend's resort on the Pacific coast, the Canal and a sail through the San Blas Islands.

Best For Families travelling with grandparents who want both coasts, colonial history and the highlands.
  

My sons' grandmother wanted to explore somewhere new with the family, and the Christmas holidays gave us the easiest window. We wanted somewhere warm without long-haul connections and a country none of us had visited. With three adventurous teenage boys and a grandmother travelling together, the route needed to balance high-energy experiences with enough comfort for everyone.

A boutique resort in Santa Catalina owned by family friends became the natural base, and the route built outward from there. Panama City and the Canal were always going to be part of it. Sailing in the San Blas Islands came through further research, with El Valle de Antón as a stop along the way. We seriously looked at Bocas del Toro and Boquete, but eleven days wasn't enough to do them justice alongside everything else, so we saved them for a return trip.

Ages in group: Young Teenagers (12-15), Older Teens and 20s, Adults (30-65), and Older Adults 65+

 

That’s the first look. Members see the rest of this route.

The stays and the day-by-day, the transport, tours and restaurants they booked, and what they’d do again.

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