Cobbled streets lined with Spanish colonial townhouses, hulking bell-towered churches, views over palm trees to Pacific Ocean sunsets: Casco Viejo, the old colonial quarter of Panama City, Panama, has bags of character and a wealth of boutique places to stay. Here are the best – bookable on Culture Trip.
Selina Casco Viejo Panama City
Hostel
Courtesy of Selina Casco Viejo Panama City / Booking.com
Aimed at travelers on a budget, the Selina hostel chain offers flashpacker comfort with modern co-worker fittings in cities around the world. The Panama branch sits on a hill overlooking the Casco Viejo, with Pacific views from some dorms and doubles. These are adorned with cool stencil art and decked out in distressed woods. Shared spaces include co-worker lounges, a pool, yoga deck and movie room, and there are organized activities on offer, from walks to ceviche making classes. There are a number of restaurants in the surrounding area.
Set in a stately, balcony-fronted, neoclassical building overlooking leafy Plaza Herrera, a block from the ocean, this grand dame offers rooms in a white palette offset with dark woods, balconies overlooking the square and bathrooms in cream metro-tile and marble. The bar serves great margaritas and there’s an on-site jazz club.
Choose the Magnolia for the views from the upper-floor rooms – you’ll see either a romantic tumble of terracotta and bell towers, or the ocean and the glass spires of downtown Panama City. Rooms and public areas are guesthouse-cozy, with simple wood-laminate flooring, rattan-weave art and wooden-shuttered wardrobes. There are dorms, too, ranging from slightly pricier four-bed rooms with ensuites to a 12-bed ballroom, which has no air-conditioning.
The Central is the most luxurious hotel in the Casco Viejo, sitting in a handsome 19th-century neoclassical building overlooking Plaza de la Independencia. There’s a rooftop pool with gorgeous bay-and-ocean views, plush rooms and a destination restaurant serving Argentinean steaks. Roosevelt stayed here during the construction of the Panama Canal. The hotel has been renovated since, and won a design award for its 2017 refit. Decor is bright and modern in creams and dark woods. Suites come with French windows opening onto large balconies.
Tantalo is a hipster boutique that suits a young, party crowd. With bright, individually themed rooms decorated with customized stencil art and modernist paintings, and furnished with bucket chairs and renovated industrial bric-a-brac, it’s in a great location just a block from the beach, and stays include breakfast. The real standout feature here is the rooftop bar, with views over the ocean and the Panama City skyline that will have you longing to linger. Watch the sunset with a cocktail in hand, or stay for the DJ-driven, dance-music nights.
With heavy 19th-century raw-stone walls, drapes over the bedheads and Edwardian furnishings, Casa Sucre feels like a hacienda. Yet the hotel is in the heart of the Casco Viejo, two minutes from the beach, with busy restaurants and bars on the doorstep. Book the apartments overlooking the tranquil inner courtyard – a modest upgrade from the standards, but more spacious, opening onto large balconies and free of street noise. The included breakfast is huge and varied.
The best thing about La Concordia? The 360-degree sunset views from the rooftop bar – of the terracotta tiles of the Casco Viejo, the sizzling street life below and the light shimmering off the Pacific Ocean. Rooms are large and modern – with Seville tiling, beds fronted with elegant velvet ottomans and Second Empire furniture refitted with contemporary upholstery. All rooms have spacious balconies. There are restaurants and bars right on the doorstep, and it can be noisy here on weekend nights, but the hotel provides ear plugs.
With exposed brick walls, floor-to-ceiling balcony windows, polished wood floors and strong blocks of color offset by warm pool lighting, Las Clementinas is a modern, urban boutique housed in a balcony-fronted early-20th-century building. There’s a zippy bar serving great cocktails and comfort food, and a tranquil inner garden courtyard. But the best feature is the rooftop sun terrace, with wonderful views over the tumbledown terracotta of the Casco Viejo and the boat-filled bay to the modern Panama City skyline.
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