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Travel and Tourism in Panama
Travel alerts, currency, climate, transit, health, and safety information for visitors to Panama.
Practical Information
Travel alert status, currency, climate, and transit details.
- Travel Alert Status
- Level 2: Exercise Increased Caution
- Time Difference
- UTC-5 (same time as Washington, DC, during Standard Time)
- Currency
- balboa (PAB); US dollar (USD)
- Climate
- tropical maritime; hot, humid, cloudy; prolonged rainy season (May to January), short dry season (January to May)
- Language(s) Spoken
- Spanish is the official language although many Panamanians in business and the professions speak English.
- Ethnic Groups
- mestizo (mixed Amerindian and white) 70%, Amerindian and mixed (West Indian) 14%, white 10%, Amerindian 6%
- National Holiday
- Independence Day (Separation Day), 3 November (1903)
- Geographic Coordinates
- 9 00 N, 80 00 W
- Location
- Central America, bordering both the Caribbean Sea and the North Pacific Ocean, between Colombia and Costa Rica
- Airports
- 103
Destinations
Regions and cities, top sights, national parks, UNESCO sites, and festivals for visitors.
Panama City — Where Two Oceans Meet
Panama City is unlike any other capital in Central America. While many visitors arrive expecting a colonial city frozen in time, what they find instead is a gleaming, hyper-modern skyline of glass skyscrapers that rises dramatically from a Pacific waterfront, a city that has experienced one of the most rapid economic transformations in the Western Hemisphere over the past two decades. The skyline of Panama City, particularly as seen from the Amador Causeway at sunset, is genuinely extraordinary — a dense cluster of towers that rivals Miami or Singapore in its visual impact, all the more dramatic for being surrounded on nearly every side by water or jungle.
Yet Panama City is not merely a city of towers and shopping malls. It contains layers of history that reward the curious traveler who ventures beyond the obvious. The most significant of these layers is Casco Viejo, the Old Quarter, which UNESCO declared a World Heritage Site for its remarkable collection of colonial architecture, crumbling grandeur, and ongoing transformation.
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Health and Safety
Medical facilities, vaccinations, disease risk, and sanitation conditions.
Panama City has some very good hospitals and clinics, but medical facilities outside of the capital are limited. Hospitals in Panama are either private hospitals or government-run public hospitals. Many foreign doctors and hospitals require payment in cash prior to providing service. Medical evacuation to the U.S. may cost well in excess of $50,000. In Panama, most hospitals accept credit cards for hospital charges, but not for doctors' fees.
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