5 Days in Panama: First-Timer Plan
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Five days is enough to add a real outlying region without rushing it. Panama’s marquee sights are spread across a small but rugged country, so use a domestic flight rather than a marathon drive, and commit to just one region, this plan heads west to Boquete’s coffee highlands.
Day 1: Arrival and Casco Viejo
Morning
Land at Tocumen (PTY), taxi or Uber to your hotel, 30 to 40 minutes. Entry is visa free, 90 days for most passports, 180 for the US and Canada, and Panama’s cash currency is the US dollar, so there’s no exchange counter to hunt for.
Afternoon
Casco Viejo’s colonial streets and Plaza Independencia fill the afternoon well. It’s safe and tourist policed, but watch for pickpockets in crowded plazas and skip El Chorrillo and Curundú at its edges.
Evening
Dinner in Casco Viejo, sancocho or ceviche are the reliable orders, then an early night ahead of the canal.
Day 2: The Panama Canal
Morning
Miraflores Locks, 15 to 20 minutes from downtown, gets a full morning, observation decks, the museum, and the posted transit schedule since there’s no fixed best viewing hour. Entry is roughly $17 for a foreign adult, verify current pricing at visitcanaldepanama.com .
Afternoon
The Biomuseo on the Amador Causeway (Frank Gehry, 2014) explains how the isthmus reshaped species on both its sides, then walk or bike the causeway for skyline and container ship views.
Evening
Early dinner and packing, tomorrow starts with a domestic flight.
Day 3: Fly to David, Transfer to Boquete
Morning
Domestic flights to David leave from Albrook (PAC), not Tocumen, on Air Panama, about an hour in the air. From David it’s roughly an hour by shuttle or taxi up into the mountains to Boquete.
Afternoon
Settle into Boquete, a cool, laid back highland town built on coffee. Walk the town center and get your bearings, the pace here is deliberately slower than the city.
Evening
Dinner at one of Boquete’s small restaurants, a good night to try Panamanian Geisha coffee, the varietal that fetches record prices at international auction, alongside dinner instead of after it.
Day 4: Boquete Adventures
Morning
Hike part of the Los Quetzales trail or take on Volcán Barú, at 3,475m the country’s highest point and, on a clear day, the only spot where you can see both the Pacific and the Caribbean at once.
Afternoon
Tour a coffee farm to see the process behind what you drank last night, from cherry to cup, and pick up beans to take home, they travel far better than most souvenirs.
Evening
A relaxed dinner in town, save energy for the flight back tomorrow.
Day 5: Return to Panama City
Morning
Shuttle back down to David and fly back to Panama City on Air Panama, landing again at Albrook.
Afternoon
Use the remaining hours for anything missed on day 1, Panamá Viejo’s ruins or a slower second pass through Casco Viejo both work as a low key closing stop.
Evening
Final dinner in the city before your flight out of Tocumen.
Know before you go
- Currency: US dollars throughout; cards work in cities, carry some cash for Boquete’s smaller shops.
- The Darién Gap is a do not travel zone per the US State Department and the UK FCDO , a different region entirely from this western route.
- Tap water is safe in Panama City and Boquete; malaria risk is confined to the Darién and comarca interior.
- No hurricanes; Boquete’s highland climate runs cooler than the coast year round, bring a layer.
Book these before you go
Rough cost sense: city hotels $60 to $120 a night, the David flight roughly $100 to $150 round trip, Miraflores entry about $17. Budget $450 to $650 per person for five days outside your international flight.
For the history behind the locks from day 2, read how the canal actually works . Want San Blas instead of the highlands, our 4 day itinerary builds in a Guna Yala overnight, or stretch this trip further with the 7 day itinerary , which adds Bocas del Toro to the western leg.