Panama City, Panama – Back in Panama City we decided to splurge and stay at a fancy boutique hotel for our last few days, but since we got back a day early we had to stay in a hostel for one night before moving into our sweet digs. We had six nights booked at the Casa Antigua hotel in Casco Viejo, which was super cool. We had a studio apartment with a kitchen and living room and a balcony and a rooftop terrace with a view of the street below and the downtown skyline. We were really torn between staying in our sweet room and checking out the city which we were also excited about. Thankfully, we had six days so we had time to see the city’s sights at a relaxing pace and get some downtime in our room as well.
After our “Friends breakfast” each morning we’d hit the town. We took a taxi to the Causeway and rented bikes and cruised down the 2k road that connects four islands to the mainland and offers great views of the canal, ships, the Panama bridge and the city. We had lunch there at a decent Middle Eastern place on the water and visited an interesting, but rundown, Marine Museum.

A mobile vendor’s cart.
From our hotel we could walk down a waterside promenade from Casco Viejo to downtown. We walked down it one afternoon and enjoyed the cool sea breeze along with tons of Panamanian couples and families also out for a stroll. We ended up on Casa Uruguay in the downtown Bella Vista distinct. We had actually debated between staying in Bella Vista and Casco Viejo, and after seeing Casa Uruguay we realized we’d made the right choice. The area was sketchy and besides expensive clubs and restaurants there wasn’t much going on. We did have a really good dinner there and then got the heck out.