Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
GETTING THERE
The vast majority of visitors to Panama arrive by air, landing at Tocumen Inter-national
Airport in Panama City. Seats are generally more expensive and more heavily sub-
scribed during the dry season (late Dec to April), especially the peak holiday periods
of Christmas, Easter and Carnaval (in Feb or March) when many Panamanians living
in the US return home. Though flights are easily booked through the internet it is still
sometimes cheaper to make arrangements via a travel agent, bearing in mind the cru-
cial distinction between Panama City in Central America (airport code PTY) and the
one in Florida (airport code PFN).
Panama's reliable national carrier, Copa Airlines, often offers the best rates and has an ef-
ficient online booking service. It flies to several US cities and to numerous destinations in
Latin America and the Caribbean. All
ticket prices
given here include the relevant taxes.
Visitors travelling down from
Central America
may choose to make the longer but cheaper
bus journey through Costa Rica, generally along the Pan-American Highway via the Pacific
border crossing at Paso Canoas, though there are a couple of other border posts at Río Sereno
in the Western Highlands and at Guabito on the Caribbean (or Atlantic) coast in Bocas del
Toro.
Alternatives to flying from
South America
are a great deal more complicated, involving a
number of boat and bus journeys on the Caribbean side, and are only for the adventurous.
Cruise ship visitors will dock at the cruise ship terminals in either Colón, at the Caribbean
end of the Panama Canal, or on the Calzada de Amador in Panama City, on the Pacific side.
Sailing boats carrying backpackers from Cartagena usually unload passengers in El Porvenir,
in Guna Yala, or in Puerto Lindo or Portobelo, further west along the coast in Colón Province.
Other yacht arrivals will probably call in at the Balboa Yacht Club on the Calzada de Amador
or at the Shelter Bay Marina west of Colón.
A BETTER KIND OF TRAVEL
At Rough Guides we are passionately committed to travel. We believe it helps us under-
stand the world we live in and the people we share it with - and of course tourism is vital
to many developing economies. But the scale of modern tourism has also damaged some
places irreparably, and climate change is accelerated by most forms of transport, especially
flying. All Rough Guides' flights are carbon-offset, and every year we donate money to a
variety of environmental charities.
