Panama

The archipelago’s most developed island is home to the provincial capital of Bocas del Toro. From the mid-1990s, foreign investors flooded the island, creating hotels, restaurants and condos while infrastructure for water, trash and sewage lagged far behind. Today the island, which runs on diesel, struggles to find a balance between satisfying development and serving community needs.

Among Central America's top surf spots, Santa Catalina is still somewhat remote with limited development and home to some seriously wicked surf. Life here is pretty tranquil, in a fishing village where skateboards rip down main street and kids go barefoot but clothing is required to walk to and from the beach. Most non-surfers discover the area as the main springboard for day and overnight trips to Isla de Coiba and its national park, where there's outstanding scuba diving and snorkeling.

Colorful and full of Caribbean-style clapboard houses, Bocas del Toro (better known simply as Bocas town) was built by the United Fruit Company in the early 20th century. Today it is a relaxed community of West Indians, Latinos and resident gringos, with a friendly atmosphere that is contagious. It’s an easy place to adapt to and even easier to linger in.

Colón Province is much, much more than its run-down capital. Think pristine beaches and lowland rainforests, colonial splendor and the modern engineering marvel of the Panama Canal. Portobelo, with its growing music and art scene, shows the best of the rich culture of the Congos, descendants of enslaved Africans who have preserved the legacy of their ancestors, while the train trip between Panama City and Colón remains one of the greatest rail journeys in the Americas.

David is Panama’s second-largest city and the capital of Chiriquí Province. It's more a center of agricultural industry than a cultural hub. Yet with foreign capital flowing into Chiriquí, David is rapidly gaining wealth and importance, and is poised to boom.

Cherished as Panama's cultural heart and soul, the Península de Azuero is a farming and ranching hub. The area's rolling hills are matched by a long and lovely coastline. Over time the peninsula has seen stark transformations – from verdant rainforest to cattle country, from indigenous land to Spanish stronghold and, finally, from a quiet town to surf central and one of Panama’s travel hot spots.

One of the most cosmopolitan capitals in Central America, Panama City is both a vibrant metropolis and a gateway to incredible tropical escapes.

One of the world’s richest biomes is the 2240-sq-mile (5790-sq-km) Parque Nacional Darién, where the primeval meets the present with scenery nearly unaltered from one million years ago. Even today in the Darién, the Emberá and Wounaan people maintain many of their traditional practices and retain generations-old knowledge of the rainforest. 

Chiriquí claims to have it all: Panama’s tallest mountains, longest rivers and most fertile valleys. The province is also home to spectacular highland rainforests and the most productive agricultural and cattle-ranching regions in the country. As a result, los chiricanos (natives of Chiriquí) take particular pride in their province and wave the provincial flag – in every sense – at the slightest opportunity.

This Caribbean fishing village is so laid-back and languorous, it's hard to imagine it was once the greatest Spanish port in Central America. Mules carried Peruvian gold and Oriental treasures to Panama City via the fortresses at Portobelo. Though English privateers destroyed them many times throughout their history, several of these atmospheric colonial fortresses still stand amid village homes.