Panama City, Panama | December 2022
Panama City, Panama:
Weather:
Mid 80's, mostly sunny with short rainstorms scattered.
Transportation:
Uber Uber Uber! The typical fare for a 20-30 minute ride was around $3 to $6.
Accomodations:
Residence Inn by Marriot - So cheap and so clean, around $110/night. Best location! There is a massive supermarket INSIDE the hotel, Super Kosher, which has everything you can possibly want, plus a cafe where you can order breakfast style food. Just a block away are a few Kosher restaurants. Chabad is a few minutes away, as well.
Kosher Food:
We went to the following places. For a list of all Kosher options, check out this page on Chabad's website.
Super Kosher - Massive supermarket inside Residence Inn hotel. Full of Israeli imported food. They have a cafe inside, MetsuYan, with a full breakfast/lunch menu.
Jeffrey's Bakery - Chalav Stam sit-in bakery. Great place for breakfast. Their pizza is Chalav Yisroel and it's divine.
Aroma - Upscale dairy restaurant. We asked the staff for the Chalav Yisroel options and we had quite a few on the menu.
Aria - Upscale meat restaurant. The short rib tacos are amazing.
Yoss Burger Bar - Delicious burger place. They serve Israeli and Asian style food as well. The BBQ Explosion burger was SO GOOD.
Lula Casco - Meat restaurant in Casco Viejo. They had a private event the night we showed up, so we didn't end up eating there. Call in advance, lesson learned:)
The Chief BBQ - Turns out it's takeout only. We didn't end up ordering anything but the menu looks good.
Attractions:
Amador Causeway - We rented a family bike for $10/2 hours and biked along the causeway. Beautiful view of the ocean. We biked until we reached the Panama Sign.
Panama Sign - A must-go for the iconic Panama picture.
Embera Tribe - We hired a tour guide for the day and went on Piraguas down the Chagres river to visit the Embera tribe. We watched them do their traditional dances, interacted with the tribe members, and toured the village. It was the best part of my trip to Panama.
Tour guide information: Ceci +1 (214) 455-6105
Mono Waterfall - On the way to the Embera tribe, we stopped at the waterfall for a refreshing swim.
ProPlay - Next to the Chabad in the city. It's a cool indoor place where you can play Padel - a mashup of tennis and squash. It costs approximately $20/half an hour. You need to wear sneakers.
Gamboa Rainforest - Sloth Sanctuary - Around 45 minutes from the city. We saw sloths, butterflies, frogs, and orchids. We hired a driver/tour guide.
Tour guide information: Reina +507 6674-5194
Monkey Island - Went on a speedboat tour to a few different islands in Lake Gatun. The monkeys came onto our boat and ate grapes and bananas. We also saw bats, termite nests, and a toucan.
Panama Canal - What's a trip to Panama without visiting the famous canal?? It was a bit unthrilling. It takes around 24 minutes for a ship to pass through the Miraflores Locks and it's a very slow process. The engineering is fascinating, but you need to have a tour guide who is fluent in English to appreciate it, lol.