Your Guide to Panama.
Beyond the Vacation.
Panama.md helps you explore, stay, live, move, and invest in Panama with trusted local insights, curated guides, and expert resources.
Discover Panama
Explore Panama by Map
Seven places that cover most of what people come for — cities, islands, highlands and coast. Pick one to see what it's good at, and what it isn't.
More places. More experiences. All in Panama.
- Curated destinations Chosen for a reason, not for search volume.
- Local insight What each place is actually like to be in.
- Honest trade-offs The rain, the drive, the noise — we say so.
Plan your trip
Everything you need for the perfect Panama trip
Handpicked stays, unforgettable experiences and local favorites. Book with trusted partners. No extra cost to you.
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Where to base Find your perfect stay
Hotels, boutique stays, apartments and villas across Panama.
Chosen by neighborhood
Search stays -
Worth the early start Unforgettable experiences
Island tours, canal transits, rainforest hikes and coffee farms.
Curated, never scraped
Explore tours -
Local favorites Eat like a local
The best restaurants, fondas, markets and hidden kitchens.
Local picks, not lists of ten
Find restaurants -
Easy & safe Getting around Panama
Airport transfers, car rental, ferries and domestic flights.
Written by people who drive it
Get moving
- Trusted partners Booking goes through established providers. Where we earn a commission, we say so.
- No markup from us You pay the partner's price. An affiliate link never costs you more than going direct.
- Need help? Ask us about a place before you book. We answer from experience, not a script.
- Secure booking Payment happens with the provider. We don't store or sell your details.
Beyond the vacation
Make Panama More Than a Trip
Most people arrive as visitors. Some end up staying. These are the three routes that question usually turns into.
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Live in Panama
Neighborhoods, cost of living, healthcare, schools and the ordinary logistics of a day here.
Explore living -
Move to Panama
Visa routes, residency requirements, timelines, and the professionals who handle each step.
Explore visas -
Invest in Panama
Property, developments, business formation and the market context behind the pitch decks.
Explore investing
Why more people are choosing Panama
- Politically stable No standing army since 1990 and a long run of civilian government.
- Uses the U.S. dollar The balboa is pegged 1:1 and dollars circulate — no exchange friction.
- Connected Tocumen is one of Latin America's busiest hubs for onward flights.
- Two coasts, one country Caribbean and Pacific, plus highlands — all within a day's travel.
- Business-friendly Territorial tax system and established company structures.
- Established community Long-standing English-speaking communities in several regions.
Popular guides to get started
View all guides
Trusted directory
Find local experts you can actually check
Panama runs on referrals, which is fine until you don't know anyone. The directory is our attempt to make that first introduction a safe one.
- Lawyers Immigration, real estate and corporate counsel. Browse
- Real Estate Agents, developers and property services. Browse
- Immigration Visa, residency and relocation specialists. Browse
- Accountants Tax, accounting and financial advisors. Browse
- Healthcare Hospitals, clinics and wellness providers. Browse
- Hotels & Stays Hotels, rentals and boutique properties. Browse
- Restaurants Kitchens worth planning an evening around. Browse
- Schools International and bilingual education. Browse
What "vetted" means here
The directory is open for submissions. Before anything is published, it clears this bar:
- We confirm the business exists, is licensed where licensing applies, and is reachable.
- Paid placement is allowed — and is always labeled Featured or Sponsored, never blended in.
- A listing can be removed. Reader reports are investigated, and we publish corrections.
Why trust us
We'd rather be useful than flattering
Panama.md is new. Rather than borrow credibility with numbers we haven't earned, here is exactly how the site is put together — judge it on that.
Read our story-
Independent by default
No tourism board, no developer, no agency owns a word of this. When a partner pays, the label says so on the page.
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Sourced and dated
Anything that changes — visa rules, costs, opening hours — carries the date we last checked it and where the figure came from.
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Written from here
Guides are written and reviewed by people who live in Panama, not assembled from other people's blog posts.
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Corrections in public
When we get something wrong we fix it and say what changed, rather than quietly editing the page.
- Every guide dated Last-checked date on anything time-sensitive.
- Ads always labeled Featured and Sponsored are never blended into editorial.
- Listings verified Businesses are checked before they appear in the directory.
- No pay-for-praise Payment buys placement, never a better write-up.